Pro Bowl Skills Showdown: Time, TV schedule for NFL’s all-star challenge

The Pro Bowl stinks, and it will probably always stink. What doesn’t stink, though, is the recently rebooted Skills Showdown, an annual showcase of talent from NFL players that includes dodgeball and drones dropping footballs. This year’s Skills Showdown begins at 9 p.m. ET Thursday on ESPN (live stream at WatchESPN).

Since the Pro Bowl is such a dud, and since so many people enjoyed previous iterations of the Skills Showdown, the NFL brought it back in 2017. It was a great time that many enjoyed, and hopefully, this year’s action will be just as good.

The events that will take place on Thursday include dodgeball ... which doesn’t really need an explanation. There will also be the drone drop, where a drone carries a football high in the air and drops it over the field. Players have to try to catch it, and it’s really not easy. Plus, the camera angles are pretty awesome.

Then there will be some kind of relay race, and competitions for best hands, a kicking challenge that involves hitting marked targets inside the uprights, and precision passing, which is always competitive.

The thing that really helps this along — something that makes it worth watching — is that the players seem to genuinely enjoy it. It’s certainly possible some players enjoy going to the Pro Bowl, but it’s such a drag of a game these days. The Skills Showdown is a nice breath of fresh air.

Below is all you need to know to watch it.