Draft Picks On The Line Would Make NFL Pro Bowl Meaningful
SALT LAKE CITY — The NFL schedule has a lull during the week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl now occupies that space and the game itself has become a joke of an event, the guys at Unrivaled think.
No one tackles and the players simply choose not to do anything else. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen chose to play the Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament instead of the Las Vegas Pro Bowl.
The league eventually decided to ditch the game of football in favor of a bunch of fun events, including a flag football competition.
[email protected] is ready to play, Kyle Shanahan. 😂 🤙 #NFL #NFLPlayoffs #FTTB #SFvsPHI #BYUFOOTBALL https://t.co/2dTrP7yynh
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) January 29, 2023
There are things like the best hold akin to the NBA slam dunk competition, a kicking competition, dodgeball, and more.
While these things make fun background noise with the week off before the Super Bowl, overall it’s not a great product.
Unrivaled’s Scott Mitchell, who played 12 years in the NFL, laments the Pro Bowl and what it was like before embarking on his big idea to make the weekend better.
“The Pro Bowl really meant something,” Mitchell said. I don’t know if it’s because the guys got more money or if there was some prestige in there. Nobody cares now. Everyone is well above the Pro Bowl. If you had a lot of veteran players in the game, the pacing would be slow; if you had a lot of young guys in the game that would be pretty high [energy]. It’s fun, but they have to do something completely different and it’s more like American gladiators, or whatever.
The big idea Mitchell pitched is to make the Pro Bowl more meaningful by putting something on the line — like draft picks.
Currently, the NFL is going from worst to best record for draft picks. This can cause some teams to tank for better draft positions. Mitchell’s idea is for the four worst teams to compete for the first draft pick on Pro Bowl weekend.
“It’s for the pecking order in the first four picks in the NFL Draft,” he said. “You get the worst teams and they play one half. So you have two teams playing one half and you have the winners playing another half. Then there is a pecking order and the team that wins gets the best draft.
Listen to unparalleled NFL Pro Bowl conversation
It’s an option to reduce tanking and would put something significant at stake during the Pro Bowl weekend festivities. It would also give fans a real football game to watch.
Too bad this idea is a pie-in-the-sky scenario due to a lot of logistical reasons with these teams not practicing since last month and potential free agents. It would take something to motivate the players.
However, if that game were to happen with the No. 1 draft pick on the line, it could mean a ratings hit for the NFL.
At least it’s a better idea than the NFL tossing around the idea of placing conference title games at neutral venues.
Tune in to Unrivaled Monday through Friday, 3-6 p.m. on 1280 AM and 97.5 FM, or subscribe to the podcast. Also download the brand new KSL Sports app on iOS or Android.
Follow @JeremyMauss