Sean Payton explains why the Broncos will stay on the East Coast

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton will keep his team on the East Coast next week.

And that’s by design.

The Broncos have games coming up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets in Weeks 3 and 4 of the NFL season, so the team won’t return to Denver.

Payton has familiarity with the Greenbrier in West Virginia, where he held several training camps with the New Orleans Saints. The Broncos will call that resort home as they transition from the Bucs to the Jets.

During his media availability on Wednesday, Payton was asked about why this decision was made and gave a couple of interesting answers.

“Before we get the assignments, when we see a series of East Coast games, we’ll put in a request for two of the East Coast games to be back-to-back. And so when the schedule came out it happened to be Tampa and the Jets,” Payton said.

And Payton’s thinking is pretty simple. His doesn’t want his team traveling across the country multiple times in a span of just a few days.

“The reason we put the request in is just to stay in that time zone, practice and then be more acclimated relative to back and forth four different times,” Payton said.

Again, Payton knows the Greenbrier, and he’s excited for the Broncos to get away as a team and do something a little different.

“The setup will be fine there, the facility, all of that will be fine,” Payton said. “I do like being away for a week with the team… those are times you get a little bit better focus I think and you can grow as a team.”

Payton went on to say the focus starts with the first trip, the one to Tampa Bay this weekend, and then the Broncos will go from there.

And at 0-2, Denver desperately needs a win. An undefeated road trip, or even a split with the Bucs and the Jets would make fans feel a lot better.

We’ll see if a week in West Virginia can be the catalyst to turning around the season.