The USA Men’s National Basketball Team shows why no country in the world can even come close to the level of play displayed by Americans when it comes to the sport of basketball. Even with steamrolled victories in excess of 50 points, the margin of victory wouldn’t even touch that of if American football was an olympic sport.

Since American football is only played at a national professional level in just a handful of other countries, it wold be expected for nations to even be able to gather a full roster (likely made up of rugby players).

Though this will likely never become a reality in the near future, it’s fun to imagine what our country’s national team would look like.

PICK 6 put together just that, and added a few awesome accompanying graphics of some of our favorite NFL stars in stars and stripes.

For the base offense the USA would go with a simple 11 personnel package which consists of one running back, one tight end, and three wide receivers. 11 packages are also currently very popular around the NFL today. The 11 package allows for great flexibility in terms of what plays can be called, and also the amount of pass protections you can utilize. On a passing play a team can decide whether to keep both the tight end and the running back in pass protection or send both out on a route, depending on what look they get from the defense.

Quarterback

Starter: Cam Newton

Reserves: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers

Running Back

Starter: Adrian Peterson

Reserves: Le’Veon Bell, Todd Gurley

Fullback

Starter: Patrick DiMarco

Wide Receiver

Starters: Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr

Reserves: DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green

Tight End

Starter: Rob Gronkowski

Reserve: Greg Olsen

Offensive Tackle

Starters: Joe Thomas, Tyron Smith

Reserves: Andrew Whitworth, Mitchell Schwartz

Offensive Guards

Starters: Marshall Yanda, Zack Martin

Reserves: Evan Mathis, David DeCastro

Center

Starter: Alex Mack

Reserve: Weston Richburg

On the defensive side of the ball, the team would go with a hybrid front similar to the New England Patriots defense. We want to be able to utilize the strengths of both the 3-4 and 4-3 defenses. The 3-4 package offers versatility and allows the use of very complex alignments. These could ultimately lead to some serious confusion for offensive line which could cause broken blocking assignments and more sacks. Couple that with the ability to run stunts and you have a true recipe for disaster for opposing offenses. The 4-3 scheme typically is the better front against the run. It takes pressure off the linebackers and allows them to roam around sideline-to-sideline more freely. The two defensive tackles eat up the middle of the field which forces offenses to start calling plays to get the running back outside the tackles. That’s where the free roam linebackers come into play and make the stop.

Defensive Ends

Starters: J.J. Watt, Muhammad Wilkerson

Reserves: Michael Bennett, Carlos Dunlap

Defensive Tackle

Starter(s): Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox

Reserves: Kawaan Short, Geno Atkins

Outside Linebacker

Starters: Von Miller, Khalil Mack

Reserves: Jamie Collins, Lavonte David

Inside Linebacker

Starter(s): Luke Kuechly, Navarro Bowman

Reserve: Bobby Wagner

Cornerbacks

Starters: Richard Sherman, Patrick Peterson

Reserves: Chris Harris Jr, Josh Norman, Darelle Revis

Free Safety

Starter: Earl Thomas

Reserve: Tyrann Mathieu

Strong Safety

Starter: Kam Chancellor

Reserve: Reshad Jones

A good special teams unit can arguably make more of a difference than either the offense or defense. When you have a kicker that can hit 90% of his field goals, and a punter that can consistently pin opposing teams inside their twenty yard line, that will benefit your team greatly. When it came time to select returners, we wanted guys who are a threat to take it to the house whenever they get their hands on the ball. These players need to be some of the most elusive, and agile guys in the league. Most people wouldn’t even bother picking a long snapper. But we did. We know the value a reliable long snapper brings to a team. One bad snap can change the entire outlook of the game.

Kicker

Stephen Gostkowski

Punter

Johnny Hekker

Return Specialist

Tyler Lockett, Darren Sproles

Long Snapper

Jon Dorenbos

While selecting a Head Coach, only two names really came to mind. Ultimately, the choice seemed very easy. To lead Team USA you need to be innovative, you need to be a master game planner, you need to be an excellent leader, and you need to make the tough decisions. We think the choice was an obvious one.

Head Coach

Bill Belichick

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