The NFL’s quest for complete domination of the sports calendar took a significant step forward on Tuesday, as team owners unanimously voted to allow league players to participate in Olympic flag football in the 2028 Games. There are still a few loose ends for the NFL, its players association, and the various Olympic governing bodies to tie up before we see league stars competing on the international stage in Los Angeles, but getting team owners to approve the measure was easily the biggest hurdle to clear.
Now, we have a pretty good idea of how this will work: Only one player from each NFL team will be allowed to participate, and “each club's designated international player is also permitted to take part for his country,” according to the league’s website. The rosters will consist of 10 players total, and the games will be five-on-five played on a 50-by-25-yard field (not including the 10-yard end zones). If you want to get a sense of how the matches will look, here’s a replay of the gold medal game between the United States and Italy at the 2022 World Games.
It’s a rather absurd version of the football we watch every weekend in the fall. There’s no offensive line, there’s barely any semblance of a run game, and kicking has been eliminated from the sport. The offense starts every possession from its own 5-yard line (even following turnovers) and has four downs to make it past midfield. If that happens, the offense gets four more downs to find the end zone. The player who receives the snap, whether it’s a quarterback or skill player, cannot cross the line of scrimmage. The quarterback is allowed to hand the ball off to a teammate for a run play in the open field, but it’s pass only once the offense gets to the opponent’s 5-yard line. The rules were certainly not designed to please football purists.
One thing that remains unclear is how many NFL players would be interested in signing up to participate and whether the United States would be able to field a football version of the Dream Team. Plus, while team owners are willing to loan their players out for the summer, it’s hard to imagine that the coaches will be enthused by the prospect of their top players missing the start of training camp and exposing themselves to a potential season-derailing injury. I don’t want to spoil the fun, but there’s a decent shot that we’ll be watching a Zach Wilson–esque player lead Team USA onto the field in a few years.
We can worry about that in 2028. For now, let’s pretend that the U.S. Olympic Committee will have the NFL’s full talent available to fill out the team. This isn’t real football, so it’s not as easy as copying and pasting the latest All-Pro team onto the roster and calling it a day. If this fake roster is going to dominate the international competition, as we all expect it to, it’ll require specific skill sets. With that in mind, let’s determine the U.S.’s dream flag football roster (plus a couple of potential alternates).
Offense
Quarterback: Kyler Murray
I, like every other football fan, laughed when Darrell “Housh” Doucette, Team USA’s incumbent flag football starter, claimed that he was a better quarterback option than Patrick Mahomes for this version of the sport. But after watching the 5-foot-7 passer’s work against Italy, I don’t think he was that far off base. It bears repeating: This is not real football. There’s no offensive or defensive line, so there is no pocket. The receivers aren’t running NFL passing concepts, and the quarterbacks aren’t making NFL-style reads. Based on the 20 or so minutes I spent watching exactly one flag football game, it appears that the most important attribute for a quarterback isn’t timing, precision, or pocket presence; it’s being able to make the free rusher—who has to start 7 yards off the line of scrimmage but gets a free attempt at the QB—miss and resetting to throw the ball downfield. That appears to be the only consistent way to create explosive plays.
So I have to apologize to all the great quarterbacks we have in the NFL: Your skill sets are largely useless to us here at the Fake Flag Football Committee. Instead, we’re taking Kyler Murray and asking him to lean into his most chaotic tendencies. We want every play to be a scramble drill ending with a pass. We’ll take a cue from the Cardinals and mandate that Kyler studies tape of Doucette to prepare him for the games. Our boy Housh doesn’t sit in the pocket looking to pick apart defenses with quick processing. He welcomes mess, and so will our quarterback.
Now, you’re probably thinking: If you’re looking for elusiveness, why not go with Lamar Jackson? Well, we’re limited to one player per team, and our secret weapon on the defensive side is a Raven. I’m sure that Lamar would be a dominant flag quarterback, but the gap between him and Kyler wouldn’t be that big from a flag football perspective.
Receiver: Justin Jefferson
This doesn’t need much of an explanation. He’s the best receiver in the NFL, and his well-rounded abilities would translate perfectly to the flag game. Jefferson is already on record saying he’d play for Team USA, and he called winning a gold medal “a dream.” Well, welcome to the squad, Jettas. We’ll mostly utilize Jefferson’s receiving skills, but we’ll also take advantage of his ability to throw the football. Since 2020, he ranks second in the NFL in non-QB pass attempts and averages over 11 yards per attempt.
In the flag game, non-quarterback pass attempts are a viable and essential strategy.
Running back: Bijan Robinson
Receivers will fill out the rest of the offense, but I wanted to save at least one spot for a running back. I considered other electric backs like Saquon Barkley and Jahmyr Gibbs but ultimately landed on the Falcons star, who might be the best make-you-miss back in the league at the moment. Per Pro Football Focus, he forced 25 missed tackles after the catch last season. And these weren’t “run through your face mask” missed tackles, either. Snatching Robinson’s flag will be downright impossible for the rest of the world.
Receiver: Mike Evans
I can’t overstate how crucial the red zone offense is in the flag game. As you can imagine, with four eligible receivers and four coverage players sharing a field that’s only 25 yards wide, things get pretty cramped near the goal line. Having a giant target who can sky over shorter defenders and snatch the ball out of the air will be the key to finishing off drives with points. The same is true for point-after attempts, which are often the deciding factor in these games. (Remember, there’s no kicking in flag football, so the offense attempts what is essentially a two-point try from the 5-yard line to get that seventh point—or they can go for two extra points from the 10.)
Receiver: Tee Higgins
What’s better than one giant red zone target? That’s right: two giant red zone targets. It also helps that both Evans and Higgins are masters at tracking downfield passes in the air and making contested catches. We’re hunting big plays in the passing game. Crisp route running and racking up yards after the catch is of secondary importance, so Higgins gets the call—even over his teammate Ja’Marr Chase, who’d be the choice if we were playing real football.
Alternate: Amon-Ra St. Brown
We do need at least one smaller, jitterbug receiver on the roster. St. Brown’s receiving chops and general evasiveness are enough to warrant his inclusion on this team, but blocking him from potentially playing for the German team—his mom is from Leverkusen—is a bonus. It will also help to have another non-giant around to make Kyler feel a bit taller by comparison, which should give our quarterback’s confidence a boost.
Defense
Cornerbacks: Derek Stingley Jr. and Patrick Surtain II
I’m lumping these guys together because the reasoning for their selection is the same: We want long, rangy corners with smooth movement skills and ball-hawking abilities. Both can stick tight to receivers, which will help in the open field, and have preternatural instincts in zone coverage, which will be vital in the red zone. I’d also trust them to hold up in coverage on an island, and in this version of the sport, every coverage outside of the red zone plays out like Cover Zero. Cornerback might be the most important position in flag football, and the demands of the position aren’t much different from the real game. Taking the NFL’s two best cover corners (for my money) makes the most sense here.
The wild card: Travis Hunter
This is a nod to the original Dream Team—which featured a rookie Christian Laettner, fresh off winning National Player of the Year in college basketball—and an attempt at making the best use of a limited roster. With squads limited to only 10 players, we don’t have much of a bench, so why not take a player who can play on both sides of the ball? The Heisman Trophy winner seems to master anything he’s asked to do on a football field, so it shouldn’t be hard to carve out a nice role for him. Hopefully, his pro career will turn out better than Laettner’s did.
Red zone specialist: Fred Warner
We won’t subject Warner to playing coverage in the open field, but his zone instincts and inexplicable ability to feel routes developing behind him would make him the perfect red zone defender in flag football. Warner is the rare linebacker who can eliminate multiple routes on a single play. That will come in handy on a cramped field.
Designated pass rusher: Kyle Hamilton
Hamilton may be a jack-of-all-trades for the Ravens, but on our team, he’ll do one thing and one thing only: rush the passer. As players in this position get a free run at the quarterback, we have no use for a deep bag of pass rush moves or strength in the trenches. We need a guy who can run fast in a straight line, adjust his angle of pursuit if the quarterback takes off, and block out the sun with his wingspan. Hamilton checks every box, and I believe his ability to bat passes out of the air would make him the most dominant flag football defender of all time. I mean, look at this guy:
Darrell “Housh” Doucette wouldn’t have an answer for that. (Though there is one major hurdle to Hamilton’s inclusion on this team: his seeming desire to play for South Korea. Looks like the USOC has some lobbying to do.)
Alternate: Christian Gonzalez
Gonzalez has yet to break out as a household name, but by 2028, he’ll be viewed as one of the best corners in the game. Like Stingley and Surtain, Gonzalez has the ideal length, playmaking instincts, and sticky coverage ability to thrive in flag football, making him an ideal reserve option.
