NFL teams playing internationally used to be able to call their shot on whether they returned home to a bye week.
The Broncos had one in 2022 when they got back from beating Jacksonville at Wembley Stadium, for example.
Now, with an ever-expanding international schedule, teams can’t make that decision for themselves. They can request, NFL officials said Thursday, but it doesn’t always fall the way teams want.
“As the world gets more complicated with more and more international games and all the other obligations across the schedule, that bye after an international game is not a guarantee,” NFL vice president of scheduling Onnie Bose said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. “It’s something that is certainly in play. We find ways — everything we’ve learned, we talked about the Vikings playing the two (straight) games over in Europe, and the learnings over time of 15-plus years playing over in Europe, the bye is less of a crucial and must-have situation.”
The Broncos, however, will still find themselves in uncharted waters when they return home from their game against the New York Jets on Oct. 12 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to host the New York Giants on Oct. 19.
There have been 19 instances of a team playing the weekend following an international game. Of that group, 16 play in the Eastern time zone and three in the Central. The Broncos will be the first team in NFL history to play the week after an international game in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones.
Denver head coach Sean Payton isn’t shy about being the first to do something — he was interested in the NFL’s game this fall in Berlin in part because it’s the first to be played in that city — but it’s difficult to imagine he was racing to sign up to be the first Western U.S. team to play the weekend after an international trip.
“There are teams that often ask us not to have their bye. So we really let the solve go either way,” Bose said. “There’s not a guarantee of a bye, nor is there a guarantee of no bye. It happened to work out in this situation.”
Bose had another key factor in mind outside of the lack of a Week 7 bye for Denver: They not only host the Giants but then Dallas in Week 8, too.
“Important for us: They got home. They’re actually home for a couple of games after that trip,” Bose said. “So it’s a factor and consideration.”
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Originally Published: May 15, 2025 at 1:56 PM MDT
