Flag football is making its debut at the 2028 Olympics, giving NFL players a huge platform to showcase their talent on a global stage. The rules allowing NFL players to participate have also passed, so the question now is: who will actually play? Well, Rich Eisen decided to draft his top four players he thinks could make Team USA a complete, winning roster.
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While it sounds fun on the surface to have NFL players participating in the Olympics like in the NBA, it’s more complicated than that. There is speculation over whether NFL stars will or should participate due to scheduling conflicts and the risk of injury. AJ Brown has already come out and said he will not attend because he’s worried the fans would be upset at him for missing training camp.
Rich Eisen, despite the uncertainty, decided to make his 5-a-side flag football team, and he held no boundaries. Eisen acted as though any player would be available to select. Surprisingly, his first overall pick wasn’t the great Patrick Mahomes.
“I love the Mahomes-magic, but sometimes you gotta get out of the pocket and you gotta make sure that flag is not getting pulled. Lamar Jackson is the perfect choice to be quarterback for Team USA,” the broadcaster argued on his show Rich Eisen Show.
It’s not a bad call from Eisen. Lamar is way faster and more agile than Mahomes on the run. It would almost be ridiculous not to consider him the overall leading candidate for quarterback. At the same time, though, it was somewhat surprising that Josh Allen’s name didn’t come up.
Moving on, Eisen then went with back-to-back wide receivers with his next two picks, snatching Amon-Ra St. Brown and Puka Nacua. Then, with his final pick, rather than selecting a running back, Eisen went with Ladd McConkey as a third wideout.
It may come as a surprise that Eisen didn’t pick any running backs. But that’s because he reasoned this game will be full of passing and jump balls, so he wants only receivers who can make tough, contested catches.
That said, it seems like Eisen’s team could have been stronger. McConkey is a solid player, but there are better options; Eisen really only took him because he says his name in a funny way. He also argued that nobody would be able to pull his flag over the middle of the field. Still, we tend to believe there were better choices to consider.
For example, Eisen overlooked AJ Brown when he was picking the wideouts, who graded out as the best receiver in the NFL last season. Even though Brown doesn’t want to play, this was a theoretical experiment. So, Eisen could’ve picked him. But he allowed his co-host to snatch him late in the fourth round.
McConkey is like a fourth-tier wide receiver compared to the rest of the league. Eisen could’ve gone with Tyreek Hill, Nico Collins, or even Mike Evans. All would’ve been better options than McConkey in our opinion.
All in all, we give Eisen’s team of Lamar, Amon-Ra, Puka, and McConkey a grade of B-. The quarterback selection was a hot start for him, and the two wideouts after were great picks as well. But he really slipped up with his last pick and completely skewed the quality of the roster.
Maybe in 2 years, McConkey will be a better pick. But today, it’s a confounding selection in comparison to other options.
