With the always-exciting Pro Bowl looming large this week I happened upon an idea that makes some sense to me (understanding that most ideas I have make very little sense). It is this: replace the Pro Bowl with a skills competition involving as little contact as possible for football. The NBA has the dunk competition, the three point competition, and the like, and hockey's got hardest shot, accuracy competitions, and even the MLB's got the Home Run Derby, so why is there no skills competition for the NFL? Not very many people want to play in a full-out all-star game where they might get hurt, and there is no skills competitions that I have heard of. Here are a few ideas that I feel are worth mulling over:

Quarterbacks - Hoops, bins, or similar ideas could work quite well. Get the player to stand at the 50 yard line and have maybe 7 or 8 targets spread over ther field from deep balls in the endzone, to quick outs. Scale the points for each bin, and have a minute timer, or something like that. It could even be done with two guys going head to head at the same time at both ends of the field where the guy with the better score moves on to the next round. Something like three players from each conference, or something along those lines. Quarterbacks could also do a longest throw game too, but I was thinking that just one per position would make sense.

Running Backs - I'm a little uncertain about this one, but it could be similar to the NBA's point guard competition where they have to go through several stations that each test their skills. So for running backs you could include one for pass catching station (either a QB, or the machine), one for blocking/strength (pushing a sled a certain distance), foot quickness with the tire drill, and then some sort of slalom fourty yard dash side to side to finish. The best times move on. Have two, maybe three rounds, and the time resets after each round. Again, three, maybe four players from each conference.

Receivers/Defensive Backs - 10 passes, receiver (or even a tight end) versus one (or two?) defensive backs. The play would only go until the receiver catches it, or until the pass is incomplete. There would also have to be a time limit (5-10 seconds) for the QB in the pocket. Scoring would be receiver two points for a catch, five for a touchdown, DB's would get two points for a pass break up (they have to touch it) and five for an interception. Now this one would be easier because you could have three or four teams of a QB, Receiver and Defensive back from each conference.

Offensive Line/Defensive Line - This would be hard as you would like to limit contact, but if you were to have a simple two OL one DL protect the QB kind of thing it may work. However, you could also do a thing similar to the RBs in having station to measure strength, quickness, etc. This would be one of the hardest ones to do.

Kickers/Punters - In my opinion there are many great ways you could make this happen. Some may sound stupid at first, but may actually work. Like a H-O-R-S-E version where you can use the whole field, or props/people. But if that's too unconventional then you could always stick to having the punters try to down it as close to the endline as they can, longest punt, longest kick, accuracy challenges. Again, using both sides of the field would work very well here.

Linebackers - I've got nothing. I have no idea what LB's could do, except maybe if you wanted two people against the one receiver the LB could be the second. Or have them join the DE's for their skills competitions. If you have any ideas for this one, please comment!

One last idea that was clearly inspired by Madden (as if half of these weren't already) but would be to have a two on two team. Have a QB, WR/TE, LB, and DB. Four downs for the field, ball always starts at a certain spot (their own 50?) unless there is a turnover. This would involve contact, but it's very limited, and there's much less risk for injury as guys wouldn't be really trying to blow anybody up, just trying to stop them. If people were really anal about it they could make it flag football, but i think contact would be ideal.

Now this seems a very farfetched idea right now, but with the unpopularity of the Pro Bowl I think that it makes a lot of sense, if done properly. Now these ideas here are just some random thoughts so feel free to blast them to bits if you don't like them, but any constructive comments would also be greatly appreciated!