​How would the Broncos finish if the upcoming season were played in a World Cup-style format? This piece originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The 2026 World Cup has been extraordinary and has dominated sports chatter this summer. Its rarity—occurring only once every four years—adds to its allure. But what if the NFL season operated on a similar cycle?
Carter Bahns of CBS Sports laid out the upcoming NFL season in the World Cup format: the league’s 32 teams would be divided into eight groups for a round-robin stage, followed by a 16-team knockout round. Bahns used Pete Prisco’s April power rankings to seed the groups, ensuring that teams from the same division weren’t placed together. So, where do the Denver Broncos stand in this hypothetical scenario?
The Broncos land in Group D, joined by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Miami Dolphins. It’s an intriguing mix—two AFC teams and two NFC teams—with the Broncos and Dolphins recorded in the same group after a offseason trade that brought Jaylen Waddle to Miami. In the group stage, Denver goes 3-0, edging out the Buccaneers and Vikings in tight wins before a decisive blowout of the Dolphins in the final group game. Their nine points advance them from the group along with the Vikings, who finish with six points.
“I still believe in Kyler Murray,” Bahns writes. “Not to the point of him lighting the world on fire, but enough to be an average-to-slightly-above-average quarterback who can maximize Justin Jefferson’s talents. The Vikings could present a serious challenge to the Broncos if everything comes together for them. Still, we’re predicting Denver rolls through the group stage. The reigning AFC runners-up won’t have trouble with a Buccaneers squad trending downward and a Dolphins team still vying for the top pick in next year’s draft.”
Advancing to the Round of 16, the Broncos draw the San Francisco 49ers, whom they would face in Week 4 of the actual season. In this projected scenario, Denver is expected to prevail 19-17. However, in the quarterfinals, the Broncos are upset by the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-30. The Bengals then fall to the Los Angeles Rams in the semifinals, a team many peg as a likely Super Bowl champion for 2026. That is Bahns’s forecast as well.
This take isn’t about predicting a perfect run for Denver. It’s a playful exploration of how the NFL might resemble a World Cup-style tournament if the league adopted that format. It’s a fun thought experiment about structure, matchups, and the potential paths a team could take through a shortened, knockout-oriented postseason.
Other notes that catch the eye include discussions about how long Ben Powers can hold onto a starting job with the Broncos, and questions surrounding how the franchise’s 2025 rookies might fare in this hypothetical setup. This exercise—though speculative—offers an entertaining look at what the NFL could feel like if it embraced a World Cup-like approach and how the Broncos might navigate such a tournament.