How would Broncos finish if upcoming season was done World Cup style?

The 2026 World Cup has been incredible and it has been the talk of the sports world this summer. The fact that it only happens once every four years highlights how special it can be. 

But what if the NFL season worked the same way? Carter Bahns of CBS Sports set up the upcoming NFL season in the same format as the World Cup, separating the league's 32 teams into eight groups, which led to round robin play and a 16-team knockout round. 

Bahns used Pete Prisco's April power rankings to help randomly select the groups, making sure that teams from the same division were not in the same group. So, how did the Denver Broncos finish?

The Broncos were selected into Group D along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins. It's an interesting group with two AFC teams and two NFC teams. The Broncos and Dolphins, who completed a trade for Jaylen Waddle this offseason, were placed together. 

The Broncos went 3-0 in the group with narrow wins over the Bucs and Vikings before blowing out the Dolphins in the third game. That gave them nine points to advance out of the group along with the Vikings, who had six points. 

"I still believe in Kyler Murray. Not to the extent that he will light the world on fire, but to the extent that he can be an average to slightly-above-average quarterback capable of taking full advantage of Justin Jefferson being his right-hand man. The Vikings can really threaten the Broncos in this group if everything comes together there. We're still going with Denver to roll through the group stage, though. The reigning AFC runners-up will not have much trouble with a Buccaneers team trending in the wrong direction and a Dolphins squad that is squarely in the race for the No. 1 pick in next year's draft", wrote Bahns. 

Moving on to the Round of 16, the Broncos draw the San Francisco 49ers, who they will face in Week 4 of the actual season. In this exercise, they're predicted to beat the 49ers by a score of 19-17. However, in the quarterfinals, the Broncos are upended by the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow, 34-30. 

The Bengals then lose in the semi-finals to a Los Angeles Rams team that will be the pick of many to win the Super Bowl this year, and that is how Bahns sees things going as well. 

HOT READ: Broncos' 2026 offense considered average under poor reasoning

The Broncos fall short of their ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl against a team that most won't see as ready to take that step in 2026, but this was still a fun look into what the NFL could be like if it put together a World Cup-style tournament. 

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