Pro Bowl Skills Showdown 2017: Highlights and results
What would happen at the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown on Thursday night?
The NFL will head into its all-star festivities over the weekend, which will culminate with the Pro Bowl. First, however, there would be the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown on Thursday night. It would see some of the NFL’s top athletes go head-to-head in a handful of games that test their skills.
There would be a handful of events taking place—Best Hands, Power Relay, Drone Drop Challenge, Precision Passing, and Epic Dodgeball. Who would walk out a winner in the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown?
Best Hands: Jarvis Landry would win with a time of 0:52.6 after completing the course. His quarterback would be Alex Smith. This gave the AFC 1 point.
Power Relay: The team of Von Miller, Geno Atkins, Joe Thomas, and Jay Ajayi would put up a time of 32.7 seconds. The NFC’s team of Thomas Davis, Gerald McCoy, Jason Kelce and Ezekiel Elliott then stepped in and beat them with 28.7 seconds. They originally received a do-over after an obstruction on the field. So the NFC walked out with 1 point of their own.
Drone Drop Challenge: Odell Beckham would beat out Jarvis Landry, Patrick Peterson, and Chris Harris Jr. This gave the NFC 1 point.
Precision Passing: Philip Rivers came out firing and dominated the Precision Passing competition with 20 points. He edged out Andy Dalton, Dak Prescott, and Drew Brees, the latter of which came the closest with 16 points. This gave the AFC 1 point.
Epic Dodgeball: The NFC dominated the first part of this competition by eliminating all but T.Y. Hilton. This led to the second round, which saw the field get smaller. However, after nearly replicating a performance from Dodgeball, Hilton could not succeed. This gave NFC the win, 3 points, and victory for the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown.
The players could run through a wall.
— ESPN (@espn) January 26, 2017
Pro Bowl action starts tonight with the skills showdown at 7 ET on ESPN. (via @ESPNNFL) pic.twitter.com/dQhOAGtRua
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/824772444321828864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
NFC WINS!@EzekielElliott crashes through for the W! #ProBowlSkills https://t.co/R0DzigYX2v
— NFL (@NFL) January 27, 2017
Drone dropping the football from 100+ feet?
— NFL (@NFL) January 27, 2017
No problem for @P2 and @OBJ_3. #ProBowlSKills https://t.co/kTBJmLckMG
From 125 feet high...@OBJ_3 extends for the grab...and WINS the drone drop! #ProBowlSkills https://t.co/GLIGCHBmKP
— NFL (@NFL) January 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/824780238697558016
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/824780988458758144
.@andydalton14 can't escape!#ProBowlSkills pic.twitter.com/9zAH4sWych
— NFL (@NFL) January 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/824783721832124416
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/824784092738629632
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The NFC gets the win over the AFC, 5-2. It would be a fun hour of events, which culminated with a popular game to close things out. This extends the NFL’s final weekend before the Super Bowl, something that has been criticized over the years. Will the skills competitions help drive interest?