Just in case you couldn’t fathom an entire Sunday without football, the NFL has you covered this weekend. The 2016 Pro Bowl is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday night at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, and will be televised live on ESPN.
Pro Bowl 2016 preview: Team Irvin, Team Rice ready to light up scoreboard in Hawaii
There’s a good chance your favorite player will be playing in this year’s (Replacement) Pro Bowl.
For the third straight year, the NFL’s version of an All-Star game will be played with mixed rosters, eschewing the traditional AFC vs. NFC battle. Instead, the league now picks two honorary captains, who then choose their teams and round out the rosters in a fantasy draft. This year’s captains are two Hall of Famers, Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice.
The first overall pick of the draft was Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, selected by Irvin to headline his squad. Wilson, named to his third Pro Bowl in four seasons, is certainly deserving of the honor. He put up career-best numbers across the board and led the league in passer rating.
He'll be surrounded by a bevy of talented playmakers, including a wide receiver corps that features four of the top eight guys on the receiving yardage leaderboard: Julio Jones (first), DeAndre Hopkins (third), Allen Robinson (sixth) and A.J. Green (eighth).
The first pick by Team Rice was another quarterback, Eli Manning, who was selected to his fourth Pro Bowl after throwing a career-best 35 touchdowns in 2015. He should be thrilled to be paired up with his teammate Odell Beckham Jr., as the two players formed one of the most dynamic receiver-quarterback duos in the league.
While Manning doesn't have the same depth of talent at receiver as Wilson does, he arguably has the more balanced offensive roster. Team Rice is stacked at running back with the league's first- and second-ranked rushers, Adrian Peterson and Doug Martin, who combined to run for more than 2,800 yards this season.
Digits
The running joke of this year's Pro Bowl is that it should be renamed the Replacement Bowl because so many guys declined to participate in the game. Players often choose not to attend for different reasons, including injuries and if they are playing in the Super Bowl next week. The final tally was 133 players that were either voted in or added as alternates, the most in NFL history and easily surpassing the previous record of 119 set in the 2010 game.
The attrition at quarterback was significant. Wilson was the only signal caller voted in who remained on the roster, after Cam Newton (for obvious reasons), Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger all backed out. The final quarterback picked as a replacement, Jameis Winston, was actually the eighth alternate at the position.
Despite the watered-down rosters, there will still be a boatload of exciting players on the field. Plus, there is a good chance that the game could be competitive. Blowouts were the norm with the traditional rosters, but the two contests played so far under the new “unconferenced” format were decided by a combined five points. Before Team Rice’s one-point victory in 2014, there hadn’t been a Pro Bowl decided by fewer than seven points since 2007.
Who to Watch
Charles Woodson’s days as an Oakland Raider might be finished, but he still has one more game left to play in an NFL uniform. The retiring 39-year-old defensive back is likely to become the 12th Hall of Famer in the Super Bowl Era to have the Pro Bowl be the final game of his career. In a surprising twist, Woodson was the final pick of the draft by Team Rice, giving new meaning to the term “Mr. Irrelevant.”
There might not be a more enticing potential mano a mano battle than the one between Team Irvin’s Richard Sherman and Team Rice’s Odell Beckham Jr. Sherman received the third-highest grade among cornerbacks at Pro Football Focus, and is the best cover guy in the Pro Bowl. Hopefully he’ll be matched up against Beckham, who delivered another stellar campaign with 1,450 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.
How to Watch
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu
TV: ESPN
Commentators: Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden
Online: WatchESPN
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