You may have heard that there’s a pretty big football tournament underway in the United States, Canada and Mexico, just not the kind of football we typically cover in this space. But while the World Cup involves a sport that the rest of the world knows by another name, we can still use the quadrennial soccer celebration to talk a bit about American football, maybe even the most American of football: Fantasy football.
In order to help you continue to prepare for your 2026 Fantasy football drafts — and we say continue because Dave Richard did a great job covering all the offensive changes you need to know in his new play-caller series that just concluded — we’re going to look at the collection of Fantasy talent on all 32 NFL teams, World Cup style. Eight divisions become eight groups, with 16 teams moving on to the knockout rounds (unlike this year’s expanded edition of the World Cup).
For this exercise, I simulated the group stage with a rough formula that took into account each team’s QB1, RB1 and top two pass catchers, along with an additional rating involving the rest of the team’s running backs, receivers and tight ends beyond those top four names. Those four ratings were added together after a weight adjustment (i.e., half the QB rating and 1.5x for the pass-catchers). That resulted in some interesting close calls and even a few knockout qualifiers that may be considered upsets.
Once we got to the knockouts, I enlisted the help of your favorite Fantasy experts in Dave, Jamey Eisenberg and Heath Cummings. That panel of three voted on who should advance for each matchup starting with the Round of 16 all the way through the final. They also provided analysis of the more interesting twists and turns of this exercise.
Fantasy Football World Cup 2026: Group stage
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | |||||||
| Bills FC | 7 | Cowboys FC | 9 | Bengals FC | 9 | Lions FC | 9 | |||
| Patriots FC | 7 | Giants FC | 4 | Ravens FC | 6 | Bears FC | 6 | |||
| Jets FC | 3 | Eagles FC | 4 | Steelers FC | 1 | Vikings FC | 1 | |||
| Dolphins FC | 0 | Commanders FC | 0 | Browns FC | 1 | Packers FC | 1 | |||
| Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H | |||||||
| Jaguars FC | 5 | Falcons FC | 7 | Chargers FC | 9 | Rams FC | 9 | |||
| Colts FC | 5 | Buccaneers FC | 4 | Chiefs FC | 6 | Cardinals FC | 2 | |||
| Texans FC | 2 | Saints FC | 4 | Broncos FC | 3 | 49ers FC | 2 | |||
| Titans FC | 2 | Panthers FC | 1 | Raiders FC | 0 | Seahawks FC | 2 |
I’ve included a World Cup style point total for each team based on how their group matchups would likely go when considering my overall ratings. For example, the closest division for me is the AFC South, which is Group E in this exercise; only two points of rating separated the top and bottom teams, and as a result I had most of those games ending in ties with one point to each team.
Let’s hear what our Fantasy experts had to say about the group results.
Q: The Cardinals beat out the 49ers to advance despite their ugly QB situation. Do you agree with that decision, or would you rather have the 49ers for Fantasy this year?
Dave Richard: I did by-position comparisons for every single matchup, weighing those players who were elite-tier a little more than others. Given my rationale, the Niners beat the Cardinals at QB and RB, but not at TE and it’s so dang close at WR but that goes the Cardinals’ way too. I would say the Niners’ elite RB and the lack of overall elite WR on both teams (sorry, Big Mike) gives San Francisco the nod over Arizona. Thus, I’d rather have the 49ers for Fantasy this year.
Q: What do you think about the Giants players matched up with the Eagles? Does losing A.J. Brown make the difference?
Jamey Eisenberg: I’d rather have the Eagles players at almost every position. I like Jalen Hurts better than Jaxson Dart. I’d rather have Saquon Barkley than Cam Skattebo. If Malik Nabers (knee) were healthy, then I would take him over DeVonta Smith, but since we don’t know when Nabers will be at 100 percent, give me Smith. And the rest of the receiving corps favors the Eagles if Makai Lemon plays to his potential. I’m expecting Isaiah Likely to have a breakout season, so give me the Giants tight end over Dallas Goedert. That mentioned, Goedert’s resume is clearly better than Likely’s heading into the year. I don’t know how anyone would choose the Giants over the Eagles in this scenario.
Q: Let’s consider this exercise in terms of Dynasty. Which teams that didn’t make it out of the group stage would you expect to get through in a Dynasty format, and of the group, which would have the best chance at making it the furthest?
Heath Cummings: In Dynasty, I think I would have had Philadelphia the highest of the teams that didn’t make the group stage, but by my rankings I may have also advanced the Eagles out of the group stage in redraft. The Raiders, Titans, and Saints are the teams that seem to have a much better chance of advancing in Dynasty than in redraft. The Saints in particular have a strong case if their wide receivers can stay healthy and Tyler Shough can build on his very solid second half of 2025. And the Raiders already have three players in my top 36 in Dynasty, just very little beyond that.
Round of 16
Bills FC def. Giants FC 3-0
Bengals FC def. Bears FC 3-0
Jaguars FC def. Bucs FC 3-0
Chargers FC def. Cardinals FC 3-0
Cowboys FC def. Patriots FC 3-0
Lions FC def. Ravens FC 3-0
Falcons FC def. Colts FC 3-0
Rams FC def. Chiefs FC 3-0
As you can see, our panel was unanimous in who should advance to the quarterfinals, with every vote being cast for group winners. So I asked them all the same question about the round, and here’s what they had to say.
Q: Which of the Round of 16 matchups do you think was the closest, and how far do you think the team you passed on could’ve made it if they won the matchup instead?
Heath: Bengals-Bears was the most difficult matchup for me in Round 1. The difference is that the Bengals are already what we are hoping the Bears will become. Bears versus Bills would have been very difficult in Round 2, with the Bills having a clear advantage at quarterback and running back while I strongly prefer the Bears’ pass-catchers over the Bills. I probably would have had the Bears winning that matchup, but it is basically a coin flip.
Jamey: If the Bears had a different matchup instead of the Bengals they might have advanced past this round and potentially gone far. But trusting the Bears requires relying more on projections than on past performance. For example, we all have high expectations for Caleb Williams, Luther Burden III, Rome Odunze and Colston Loveland, but none of them have been consistent, top-tier Fantasy performers yet. And the backfield combination of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai is solid, but neither running back stacks up well against most of the competition in this round. We might be a year away from saying the Bears have the best team in this competition. But right now they deserve to lose to the Bengals in this round.
Dave: Picking the Rams over the Chiefs was the toughest matchup. I went with the Rams because I would draft Matthew Stafford over Patrick Mahomes this year, Puka Nacua over Rashee Rice, and Davante Adams over Xavier Worthy. The difference between Kenneth Walker and Kyren Williams is tiny — they’re back to back in my rankings. Travis Kelce gives the Chiefs the edge at tight end, but it’s not a big enough edge to overshadow the other positions.
Quarterfinals
Bengals FC def. Bills FC 2-1
Chargers FC def. Jaguars FC 3-0
Lions FC def. Cowboys FC 3-0
Rams FC def. Falcons FC 2-1
Here we see some disagreement from our panel, with two of the four matchups coming down to a single vote. I asked the two contrarians about those votes.
Q: You were the only one on the panel to take the Bills over the Bengals. Do you see some value in some of Buffalo’s pass catchers relative to market perception?
Dave: When I made the choice it was with this logic: I like Josh Allen over Burrow, I like James Cook over Chase Brown, and I like Dalton Kincaid over whoever the Bengals roll out at TE. The receivers for Cincy are far and away better than the Bills receivers, but it wasn’t enough to make me go with the Bengals at that time. Now that I think back, I kind of wish I had taken the Bengals because the difference between Cook and Brown is negligible, and the difference between Kincaid and random Bengals TE is also small. I probably should have taken the Bengals.
Q: You were the only one on the panel to take the Falcons over the Rams. Do you think Atlanta will get good enough production from the QB position to justify the high ratings at other positions?
Heath: The Falcons over the Rams likely came down to two things. One, I am very excited for Kyle Pitts in his first season in Kevin Stefanski’s offense. Two, I am very concerned that Davante Adams took a step back last year, which was masked by an absurd touchdown rate. I actually have Pitts two spots ahead of Adams in my top 200. Combine that with the fact that the Falcons have two potential Round 1 picks in Bijan Robinson and Drake London and that makes the Falcons sneaky good in this format. I don’t expect great quarterback play, but I think there is a decent chance that it is slightly better than what London and Pitts have been used to.
Semifinals
Bengals FC def. Chargers FC 3-0
Lions FC def. Rams FC 3-0
Our finalists had no trouble getting through this round, or did they?
Q: Which semifinal matchup do you think is closer?
Jamey: I struggled with the Lions-Rams matchup given the talent on both rosters. I ultimately chose the Lions because their top two players in Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown are both first-round picks in all Fantasy leagues, and the Rams only have Puka Nacua as a first-round talent.
Q: Who would you take in the third-place game between the Rams and Chargers, and why?
Jamey: I’d go with the Chargers over the Rams in a third-place game, but I might be overly excited about the Chargers this season now that Mike McDaniel is the offensive coordinator. In this matchup, I’ll take Justin Herbert ahead of Matthew Stafford at quarterback, and I like Omarion Hampton better than Kyren Williams at running back. The receiving corps favors the Rams with Nacua and Davante Adams, but I’m expecting a big season out of Ladd McConkey and Quentin Johnston. I also like the tight end duo for the Chargers (Oronde Gadsden II and David Njoku) better than the group for the Rams (Colby Parkinson, Terrance Ferguson, Tyler Higbee and Max Klare). It’s close, but the Chargers come out on top.
Final
Bengals FC def. Lions FC 2-1
Bengals FC is your 2026 Fantasy Football World Cup champion, though it wasn’t unanimous. Ja’Marr Chase is the consensus No. 1 receiver in Fantasy among our experts and shouldn’t last beyond the third overall pick in PPR leagues, with a case to go as high as first overall. Tee Higgins is a borderline WR1 in 12-team leagues for our experts, while Chase Brown is safely inside the top 10 at running back. Joe Burrow sits inside the top five at quarterback in every set of our expert rankings as well. There isn’t much to speak of beyond those top four, but that group is enough to earn Bengals FC the title.
Q: Are you targeting anyone from Cincinnati specifically in drafts this season? Do you see any sleeper potential for any of the non-marquee names in the offense as late-round or waiver wire targets?
Jamey: I’m targeting everyone for the Bengals this season, and you can potentially stack all four of their top guys if the draft falls in your favor. You would need to get Ja’Marr Chase in Round 1, Chase Brown in Round 2, Tee Higgins in Round 3 and Joe Burrow in Round 4. That’s not a strategy I’d want to use, especially given the injury history for Burrow and Higgins, but it could work great if everyone stays healthy. If you’re looking for Cincinnati players to target late, the likely handcuff for Brown is Samaje Perine, so stash him on your bench in deeper formats. Andrei Iosivas could benefit if Chase or Higgins missed any time, but I would expect Mike Gesicki to help Fantasy managers more if a receiver were out. And there’s always Joe Flacco if Burrow suffers an injury, so Flacco could be a league-winner if given the chance to start. But we don’t want to see any backups in Cincinnati this year. Let Chase, Brown, Higgins and Burrow all be stars in 2026.
Q: Is the Lions’ better depth in Fantasy talent what gave them the edge over the Bengals, or are there other factors that make them your championship pick?
Heath: Kind of, but also Gibbs is my No. 1 player in all of Fantasy. And I have Amon-Ra St. Brown closer to Ja’Marr Chase than Chase Brown in my rankings. So, in my rankings, the Lions are both deeper and better at the top than the Bengals. From a projections standpoint, I have the Bengals QB, RB, WR1, and WR2 projected for a combined 0.9 more Fantasy points per game than the Lions group. But the difference between Sam LaPorta and Mike Gesicki is much larger than that. I’m also the high guy on Jared Goff in our rankings, expecting him to post another top-12 season.
More Fantasy Football World Cup thoughts
While our final may or may not have surprised you, I wanted to dig a little more into the new faces and changing value of players heading into 2026 as part of draft preparation.
Q: Let’s consider a Fantasy World Cup exercise using only the rookies, whom you know well as part of your draft content. Which teams do you think have the best shot at winning the title?
Dave: Thinking only about offensive rookies, and only for Fantasy, I think my final four would come down to the Browns, Saints, Cardinals, and Seahawks. I know the rookies aren’t much to look at in Arizona or Seattle once you get past the first-round running backs, but those first-round running backs carry some outstanding long-term appeal. I think the Saints have three potentially good rookies headlined by Jordyn Tyson, and the KC Concepcion-Denzel Boston combination narrowly beats out the Carnell Tate-Nicholas Singleton combo in Tennessee and the Makai Lemon-Eli Stowers duo in Philadelphia.
Q: Let’s again consider a Fantasy World Cup for the Dynasty format. What would your final look like (in other words, what two NFL teams have the best collection of Dynasty talent), and who would you take in the final? Which team do you think has risen the most since last offseason if we had done this exercise then?
Heath: Even in Dynasty, it may still be the Bengals and Lions. Both teams have two players in the top 16 of my Superflex Dynasty Top 150. No other team does. Their best players are still just young enough that I am not sure any of the younger teams could beat them. The Bears and Falcons would have had a very good chance as well.
