From London to Revenge: Broncos Face Grueling Post-International Test vs. Giants and Russell Wilson

The Denver Broncos could get the opportunity to settle some old scores with Russell Wilson this season. The New York Giants are framed in Week 7 on the Broncos' 2025 schedule, and if Wilson wins the starting job and retains it, it'll set up nicely for a revenge tilt on both sides.

The Wilson angle, being extra motivated to put one over his former team, will be the low-hanging fruit for local and national media anticipating this Broncos-Giants matchup. Fresh off a trip across the pond, the Broncos might feel that overcoming the logistical complications the NFL schedule-makers dropped in their laps will be more pressing than worrying about whether Wilson will be able to fend off Jameis Winston and first-round pick Jaxson Dart by Week 7. 

After all, for the first time in NFL history, the Broncos will be the first team west of the Mississippi to forego the obligatory bye following their International Game in Europe, instead returning home the following week to host the Giants in Denver.

Previously, the NFL schedule-makers have ensured that if a team plays an International Game, they get a bye the following week. If not a bye, it's a game on the East Coast, or at least in the Central Time Zone. 

Breaking with that unwritten protocol is going to challenge the Broncos' ability to manage their complicated itinerary. It all begs the question: Why didn't the Broncos lobby for their bye week to follow immediately after playing the New York Jets at Tottenham Stadium in London?

Right on cue, NFL vice president of scheduling Onnie Bose explained during a conference call on Thursday how difficult it is to spin all these plates at once, especially as the game rapidly grows internationally. 

"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," Bose said via The Denver Post's Parker Gabriel. "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." 

Reading between the lines, it would appear the Broncos' top brass were willing to test the waters of foregoing a Week 7 bye following the International Game vs. the Jets, with their bye landing instead in Week 12.

Even so, the glaring absence of a revitalizing week's rest after playing the Philadelphia Eagles on the East Coast and the Jets in London means the Broncos will have to recover quickly from that two-game swing. It will also test Denver's willingness to embrace the challenges that the increasingly tricky schedule will throw at them. 

“Important for us: They got home. They’re actually home for a couple of games after that trip,” Bose said via Parker. “So it’s a factor and consideration.”

The Broncos return from London to host the Giants, followed by another home stand vs. the Dallas Cowboys in Week 8. Back-to-back home games is the closest thing to a scheduling accommodation the Broncos will get after satisfying the NFL's International Game.

In the wake of this complexity, Sean Payton and company should be far more inclined to block any Wilson revenge tropes out of their minds. Thanks to the jetlag sure to come from that two-week away trip, drawing up an effective game plan to defend Wilson should guarantee the coffee machine will be working overtime at Dove Valley. 

In all fairness to Wilson, he's been far more focused on his increasingly nomadic NFL career to indulge in any spats with the Broncos. Both sides have moved on in their own way. 

Given how far removed the Broncos are these days from the almost weekly car crash they were in with Wilson under center, the Week 7 Giants game will surely be about avoiding any off-the-field distractions. That will include closely managing the Wilson subplot with a great deal of decorum in the press, and even with kid gloves. 

Simply battling the element of fatigue and time zone anomalies that mark any voyage into international waters carries the biggest additional risk to the Broncos' posting a win against the rebuilding Giants. 

Thankfully, Payton has always embraced the challenges of juggling difficult scheduling curveballs. That's part of what makes him a top-flight head coach 

Only last season, Payton decided the Broncos should stay out on the East Coast during their Week 3 and Week 4 road trip vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jets. The bonding exercise and acclimation process worked wonders, as Denver won both games, despite having a horrible track record of early-start East Coast games.

Due to the trans-Atlantic nature of their travel plans this time around, the Broncos will have to tough this one out and double down on sleeping regimens and nutrition, and prepare with extra diligence. Slipping up against the lowly Giants would mean falling prey to a 'trap game,' and losing to Wilson might prove catastrophic to Denver's greater ambitions.