What We Learned

2025 Pro Bowl Games: What We Learned from Thursday's skills competitions

Published: Jan 30, 2025 at 09:29 PM

Grant Gordon

Digital Content Editor

NFL.com's Grant Gordon breaks down what you need to know from all of Thursday's action at the Pro Bowl Games skills competition. The second annual Pro Bowl Games conclude Sunday with more skills competitions and three flag football games to determine the AFC-NFC winner.

NFC Pro Bowl Team 14, AFC Pro Bowl Team 7

AFC Pro Bowl Team

NFC Pro Bowl Team

Goff firing on all cylinders in Orlando. There’s zero doubt Jared Goff would’ve rather been making plans to play in New Orleans than firing off pigskins at targets in Orlando, Florida. Nonetheless, the Lions quarterback put on an impressive show, prevailing in the passing test -- the first and marquee event of Thursday’s Pro Bowl Games Skills Competitions. Buoyed by Packers running back Josh Jacobs’ trivia prowess providing the QB with extra time, Goff posted 44 points, which was threatened only by NFC teammate Sam Darnold, who turned in a 39-point showing. Goff and Detroit came well short of their aspirations when they were upset in the Divisional Round by the Commanders. He threw three interceptions in the defeat. Showing out Thursday isn’t going to dispel the doldrums of two weeks prior, but Goff looked every bit like an all-star and got the NFC out to a stellar start.
Darnold starts hot, rebounds from lull. Sam Darnold had the best season of his career en route to his first Pro Bowl selection. However, he concluded the 2024 campaign in calamitous fashion, quarterbacking the Vikings offense to just 18 points combined in back-to-back losses to end the year. Back on the field Thursday in the passing competition, Darnold turned in a performance that eerily mirrored his regular season -- before rebounding strong. The Minnesota signal-caller hit eight of the nine targets within 52 seconds, including seven in a row at one point (though the broadcast counted off six). However, he followed with a 32-second drought in which he misfired on every throw. With 20 seconds left, he bounced back and at one point hit five in a row. Sure, it’s the Pro Bowl Games, but in the story of Sam, it was a pleasant finish after a rough stretch, and one can only hope it bodes well for another strong comeback in 2025.
Quinnen is king of New York -- and NFL’s mightiest. In his third straight Pro Bowl, the Jets’ Quinnen Williams is a mammoth being overflowing with speed, skill, quickness and strength. He flexed the latter in all-star form. Akin to the carnival strong man hammer game, the Big Spike debuted Thursday, with some of the league’s biggest and best competing for the league’s strongest spike. In a matchup featuring Rashawn Slater, Joel Bitonio, Frank Ragnow and Chris Lindstrom, it came down to a battle of New York. Williams went third and came through with an eye-popping 981 score. It was the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence who was the last up and came agonizingly short, finishing with a mark of 979. Williams earned some bragging rights for the Jets in this one. Perhaps more importantly, though, Lawrence, having missed the last five games with an elbow injury, looked to be in prime form. Furthermore, after a 2024 season in which the Jets and Giants combined for eight wins, it was a fitting reminder that struggle though they did, both squads feature two of the elite defensive linemen in the game.
Relay race drops the ball. Featuring three heats worth a point apiece, the relay race dropped the ball -- thrice, in fact. Equal parts speed, chaos and confusion, each heat saw somebody drop a handoff. It also fell short in a much-ballyhooed brotherly showdown, but was able to showcase the burners on Giants rookie Malik Nabers and Lions second-season sensation Jahmyr Gibbs. In the opening heat, Ravens stud fullback Patrick Ricard was stunning matched against Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons. Predictably, Parsons blew past Ricard. Not long after, Gibbs, who wouldn’t have been threatened anyway considering his lead, sprinted to the finish when the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor dropped the handoff on the anchor leg. The second heat promised the intrigue of a sibling showdown between the Chargers’ Joey Bosa and the 49ers’ Nick Bosa. But the two came out of the gates walking -- speed-walking through the first leg (Joey won by a reach). Then it was the NFC’s turn to drop the ball, which the Seahawks’ Devon Witherspoon did when he tossed the ball to the Falcons’ KhaDarel Hodge. Finally, it came to an end with the biggest highlight: Nabers leaving no doubt as he burst off the line and led another NFC win. It was another easy win, too, after one last drop in the event, this one on a fumbled exchange from the Browns’ Jerry Jeudy to the Ravens’ Kyle Van Noy. Good chemistry between a Browns wide receiver and a Ravens linebacker probably shouldn't be expected, though. Might need to fine tune the strategy and fundamentals on this one next year.
NFC closing in on three-peat. No doubt looking to flex for new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, Cowboys offensive lineman Tyler Smith caught a ball from the Colts’ Quenton Nelson to clinch three points and a win in the second and final dodge ball game of the evening. It put the finishing touches on the night with the NFC leading, 14-7, heading into Sunday’s final day -- which is a week out from the biggest game of the year. Could this Sunday set the tone for the Super Bowl LIX? Well, as the Kansas City Chiefs will vie for a first-ever Super Bowl three-peat against the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC is closing in on a three-peat, as well, which head coach Eli Manning pointed out. “They want the three-peat,” Eli Manning said. “They been talking about the Kansas City next week, the three-peat, really all eyes are on the Pro Bowl for the three-peat, NFC, right now.” Since the Pro Bowl Games debuted in 2023, Eli and the NFC have gone 2-0 against Peyton and the AFC. On Sunday, four skills competition and flag football action remain, but Goff, Darnold, Eli and the NFC are off and running on their way to hopeful history.

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