Pro Bowl Skills Challenge to feature Raiders’ Hunter Renfrow
Raiders receiver Hunter Renfrow will be among the NFL stars competing in the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown on Wednesday at Las Vegas Ballpark.
The baseball stadium has been transformed into a football facility that will host several days of NFL activities, starting with Wednesday’s competition and continuing with AFC and NFC practices each day through Saturday.
The skills competition will take place at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Gates open at 3:30 p.m. The event will air on ESPN at 4 p.m. Thursday.
The start time of the event, which will feature two teams of Pro Bowlers and some new wrinkles, was moved back late Tuesday due to forecasts predicting high winds early in the day.
The most intriguing new addition is likely to be the Best Catch event.
It will feature receivers from each conference competing to see who can make the most impressive catch. Players are encouraged to get as imaginative as they can to make a highlight-reel catch that will be judged on creativity, ingenuity and talent.
The use of props and cameos are encouraged.
Think of this as a slam-dunk contest for pass catchers. It has the potential to become the most popular event to ever come out of the skills competition.
Santonio Holmes and David Tyree, who made two of the more memorable catches in recent Super Bowl history, will be two of the judges.
In addition to Renfrow, the other AFC pass catchers scheduled to compete in various events on Wednesday are Baltimore’s Mark Andrews, Buffalo’s Stefon Diggs and Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill.
Cleveland running back Nick Chubb, Chargers safety Derwin James, New England quarterback Mac Jones and Cleveland cornerback Denzel Ward round out the AFC team.
The NFC squad features quarterbacks Kirk Cousins of Minnesota and Russell Wilson of Seattle. They will be joined by receiver Justin Jefferson of Minnesota, cornerback Trevon Diggs and linebacker Micah Parsons of Dallas, running back Alvin Kamara of the Saints and cornerback Darius Slay of the Eagles.
Several of those players could be candidates to compete in a scaled-down version of the old “NFL’s Fastest Man” competition.
Two skill position players from each conference, which could include receivers, running backs and defensive backs, will race in a 40-yard sprint to determine speed supremacy.
Some of the returning events also offer plenty of intrigue.
The most popular figures to be the Epic Pro Bowl Dodgeball best-of-three series, which will serve as the grand finale of the event. Every member of each of the skills challenge teams will participate, with the last man on the court being declared the winner of each match.
The NFC won the overall skills challenge with a dramatic comeback in the last event two years ago.
Other traditional events include Precision Passing and Thread the Needle.
In the passing event, the quarterbacks and one non-quarterback in each league will compete in a frantic one-minute drill in which they try to hit as many targets as possible.
Targets are affixed to robotic dummies that are in motion across the field of play. A new rule will allow quarterbacks to get one final throw at a long-distance target to earn bonus points after time has expired.
Thread the Needle is another one-minute contest in which quarterbacks will also get the chance to hit targets. But in this event, the defense has a chance to impact the throws.
Tickets were available through a link sent out to fans who had previously purchased tickets to Sunday’s Pro Bowl game. As of Wednesday, a message on the link says all tickets have been distributed.
Additional information on all fan events throughout the week can be found at ProBowl.com.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
