INDIANAPOLIS — When NFL teams play in Europe, one of the biggest questions they have to answer is a simple one.
When to travel.
NFL teams typically take their transatlantic flight either at the beginning of the work week, theoretically giving the roster ample time to overcome jet lag, or Thursday night, landing in Europe on Friday.
The Colts are flying Thursday.
“There’s a lot of research,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “I mean, there are teams that go over earlier, some teams go over later. I feel like the majority of teams go on Thursday.”
The results have been mixed in 2023.
Baltimore spent the entire week in London early this season and beat the Titans, who traveled just for the weekend. Jacksonville spent two weeks in London, opening the trip by flying over on the weekend and beating the Falcons, who kept to a similar schedule, then stayed over and beat Buffalo the next week after the Bills traveled Thursday.
But the first Germany game of the season flipped those results on their heads.
Miami spent the entire week overseas, then came out sluggish and fell behind 21-0 in the first half to a Chiefs team that didn’t get to Frankfurt until Friday.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid made his decision because he’d gotten good results flying late in years past.
Steichen seems to be following the same script, letting his previous trip with the Chargers inform his decision in charge of the Colts.
“I was part of a London trip back in ’17, ’18,” Steichen said. “We went over on a Thursday, took a red-eye, slept, got there, tried to treat it like a normal day. Did our normal deal on Friday and then had our walk-through on Saturday, then played the game.”
Unlike the other Europe games mentioned, Sunday’s trip will not be a battle of jet-lag philosophies. New England plans to fly Thursday, too, according to Patriots coach Bill Belichick in his meeting with Patriots reporters Monday morning.
Steichen’s philosophy is simple.
“Try to keep (the players) on schedule as much as possible,” Steichen said. “You’re over there, whatever, three days, and go try to win a football game.”
The week’s not going to feel entirely normal.
It’s only Monday, and it’s already a bit different.
“We actually just had a meeting about it,” Colts tight end Kylen Granson said. “They basically gave us a preemptive view of security that’s available, what Germany is like, what to expect, where we are going to be staying, what the travel is going to look like, even how to eat and sleep in preparation for the flight, how to eat and sleep on the flight.”
But Steichen is trying to emphasize that the goal is any other road trip.
The Colts head coach wants Indianapolis focused on the Patriots.
“Definitely, the agenda is: Go in there and get this win,” cornerback Jaylon Jones said. “I’m not really looking forward to all the tourist activity, things like that. Whatever team activities we do, definitely, will be fun for us and the guys, but this is a business trip at the end of the day.”
A business trip to a place the Colts have never been before.
But a business trip nonetheless.