Starting with the 2023 NFL season, the league changed how the Pro Bowl operates, with players competing in a skills competition.
With four players in this year’s game, the Detroit Lions were well-represented in terms of the fun skills battles early on, and on Thursday, February 2, perhaps the most exciting event of the weekend took place.
Most of the season, wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown has been depended on to show his quality mitts, and that was no exception with regards to this competition. Choosing to use the horseshoe pool in Las Vegas, St. Brown turned up with some fantastic catches including a flip off a launching pad as well as some fancy footwork:
In spite of the impressive nature of the catches, St. Brown trailed his Minnesota rival Justin Jefferson head-to-head in voting on Twitter. Jefferson had an impressive play himself, hauling in a one-handed catch off the Paris Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.
Lions fans know St. Brown has the goods in terms of tough catches. In the Week 18 season finale just under a month ago, St. Brown made arguably the best catch of his career, squeezing a pass between his legs while falling down.
For these purposes, the pool catches may have had the higher degree of difficulty and thus, may figure as more impressive. That’s true even if St. Brown doesn’t win the event.
Fans can head to Twitter to re-tweet the Lions’ postto vote for St. Brown and attempt to move him on against Jefferson, though the odds may be stacked against him significantly at the moment.
That doesn’t change how impressive some of the moves were from St. Brown in the pool, however.
Jared Goff Puts on Show Throwing Passes
In addition to St. Brown catching passes, his quarterback Jared Goff showed off the accuracy which made him one of the top quarterbacks statistically during the season throwing them.
Despite the fact that the AFC would claim the Precision Passing event, it wasn’t due to a lack of execution on Goff’s part. The quarterback put up a solid 21 points, and hit several targets during the competition early on.
Here’s a look at some of Goff’s best passes on the night:
Coming out 🔥 @JaredGoff16
#ProBowlGames | 📺ESPN
Goff and his conference mates were upstaged in the event, but clearly, the quarterback has a consistent arm, which he showed most of the season. With 29 touchdowns and a 65.1 completion percentage on the year, Goff’s accuracy was hardly in question.
Penei Sewell Shows off Soft Hands
Offensive linemen are figured to be big and burly, but Penei Sewell has proven since day one in Detroit that he is a man of many different talents.
With all of that strength, does Sewell still have soft hands to be able to caress a water balloon? That question was asked and firmly answered during the event on Thursday night.
During the Lightning Round event, Sewell was tossed the water balloon and managed to squeeze it without incident.
You know @peneisewell58‘s got those 👐
#ProBowlGames | 📺ESPN
It isn’t the first time Sewell has impressed with his hands this year, of course. During a 34-23 win over Minnesota, the Lions threw Sewell a pass deep into the fourth quarter. On third down, Dan Campbell dialed up a shocking throw to Sewell, who rumbled for the first down to help Detroit salt the game away.
No. 58 reports as an eligible receiver. No. 58 is an eligible receiver.
Seeing Sewell able to handle water balloons was no surprise as a result of this, and may have actually been easier in the end than catching a clutch pass in crunch time while running up field.
It was a quality performance for Sewell and the Lions in the event, but the weekend show is hardly over. The players have more events, with Goff, Frank Ragnow and St. Brown participating in flag football on Sunday, Sewell in a gridiron gauntlet relay race on Saturday and finally Ragnow in a “move the chains” weight pull on Sunday.
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Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown Makes Amazing Catches During Pro Bowl [WATCH]