The Broncos came out of a World Cup-style NFL setup looking strong in the group stage, but not quite strong enough to make the final leap.
CBS Sports’ Carter Bahns took the 32-team league and reshaped it into eight groups with round robin play and a 16-team knockout bracket, using Pete Prisco’s April power rankings to help sort the field while keeping division rivals apart. Denver landed in Group D with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins.
That group gave the Broncos a mix of AFC and NFC competition, and they handled it cleanly. Denver went 3-0, edging the Buccaneers and Vikings before hammering the Dolphins in the final group match. That run put the Broncos on nine points and sent them through alongside the Vikings, who finished with six.
"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.
From there, Denver’s path got tougher. In the Round of 16, the Broncos were matched with the San Francisco 49ers, a team they’ll also see in Week 4 of the real schedule. Bahns had Denver getting past San Francisco 19-17.
The run ended in the quarterfinals, where the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow knocked the Broncos out 34-30.
Bahns then had the Bengals fall in the semifinals to the Los Angeles Rams, a team many are picking to win the Super Bowl this season, and that was his final picture for the tournament.
So in this alternate World Cup version of the NFL, the Broncos made it through the early rounds but fell short of the title. It was still a sharp little glimpse at how the league might look if it ever borrowed soccer’s biggest stage.
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