Pro Bowl 2016: Unconferenced Teams, Captains and Expectations

Fantasy football helps influence the NFL's Pro Bowl once again as the 2016 version will feature an unconferenced draft of those voted to Honolulu.

It's Team Irvin squaring off with Team Rice in a rematch with Hall of Fame wide receivers Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin back in the fold to draft players and coach them in the big game itself.

While the game isn't perfect and folks would much rather spend the weekend watching the Super Bowl, it's a nice holdover and gives fans one last chance to see their favorite players take the field before the offseason break. Here's everything to know.

Game Details

When: Sunday, January 31 at 7 p.m. ET

Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii

Television: ESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN

NFL Players Pool

Offense
Defense/Special Teams
Position	Player	Team
QB	Tom Brady (I)	New England Patriots
QB	Cam Newton (I)	Carolina Panthers
QB	Carson Palmer (I)	Arizona Cardinals
QB	Tyrod Taylor (R)	Buffalo Bills
QB	Jameis Winston (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
QB	Teddy Bridgewater (R)	Minnesota Vikings
QB	Aaron Rodgers (I)	Green Bay Packers
QB	Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahawks
QB	Ben Roethlisberger (I)	Pittsburgh Steelers
QB	Derek Carr (R)	Oakland Raiders
QB	Eli Manning (R)	New York Giants
RB	Jonathan Stewart (I)	Carolina Panthers
RB	Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings
RB	LeSean McCoy (I)	Buffalo Bills
RB	Todd Gurley	Los Angeles Rams
RB	Latavius Murray (R)	Oakland Raiders
RB	Devonta Freeman	Atlanta Falcons
RB	Doug Martin	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
RB	Chris Ivory (R)	New York Jets
FB	Pat DiMarco (R)	Atlanta Falcons
FB	Mike Tolbert (I)	Carolina Panthers
FB	Marcel Reece	Oakland Raiders
WR	Brandon Marshall (I)	New York Jets
WR	Julio Jones	Atlanta Falcons
WR	Calvin Johnson (I)	Detroit Lions
WR	DeAndre Hopkins	Houston Texans
WR	A.J. Green	Cincinnati Bengals
WR	Larry Fitzgerald	Arizona Cardinals
WR	Antonio Brown (I)	Pittsburgh Steelers
WR	Odell Beckham Jr.	New York Giants
WR	Allen Robinson (R)	Jacksonville Jaguars
WR	Jarvis Landry (R)	Miami Dolphins
WR	Amari Cooper (R)	Oakland Raiders
TE	Greg Olsen (I)	Carolina Panthers
TE	Delanie Walker (R)	Tennessee Titans
TE	Gary Barnidge (R)	Cleveland Browns
TE	Travis Kelce	Kansas City Chiefs
TE	Rob Gronkowski (I)	New England Patriots
TE	Tyler Eifert	Cincinnati Bengals
OT	Trent Williams (I)	Washington Redskins
OT	Andrew Whitworth	Cincinnati Bengals
OT	Joe Thomas	Cleveland Browns
OT	Joe Staley	San Francisco 49ers
OT	Tyron Smith	Dallas Cowboys
OT	Jason Peters	Philadelphia Eagles
OT	Branden Albert (R)	Miami Dolphins
C	Mike Pouncey (I)	Miami Dolphins
C	Eric Wood (R)	Buffalo Bills
C	Alex Mack	Cleveland Browns
C	Ryan Kalil (I)	Carolina Panthers
C	Travis Frederick	Dallas Cowboys
C	Nick Mangold (R)	New York Jets
OG	Marshal Yanda	Baltimore Ravens
OG	Logan Mankins (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
OG	Richie Incognito (R)	Buffalo Bills
OG	Trai Turner (I)	Carolina Panthers
OG	Josh Sitton	Green Bay Packers
OG	Zack Martin	Dallas Cowboys
OG	Mike Iupati	Arizona Cardinals
OG	David DeCastro	Pittsburgh Steelers
Position	Player	Team
DE	Muhammad Wilkerson (I)	New York Jets
DE	J.J. Watt (I)	Houston Texans
DE	Khalil Mack	Oakland Raiders
DE	Chandler Jones	New England Patriots
DE	Michael Bennett	Seattle Seahawks
DE	Ezekiel Ansah	Detroit Lions
DE	Everson Griffen (R)	Minnesota Vikings
DE	Carlos Dunlap (R)	Cincinnati Bengals
DT	Kawann Short (I)	Carolina Panthers
DT	Gerald McCoy	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
DT	Geno Atkins	Cincinnati Bengals
DT	Jurrell Casey (R)	Tennessee Titans
DT	Cam Jordan (R)	New Orleans Saints
DT	Aaron Donald	Los Angeles Rams
DT	Fletcher Cox	Philadelphia Eagles
DT	Calais Campbell	Arizona Cardinals
OLB	DeMarcus Ware (I)	Denver Broncos
OLB	Von Miller (I)	Denver Broncos
OLB	Julius Peppers (R)	Green Bay Packers
OLB	Justin Houston (I)	Kansas City Chiefs
OLB	Tamba Hali	Kansas City Chiefs
OLB	Elvis Dumervil (R)	Baltimore Ravens
OLB	Thomas Davis (I)	Carolina Panthers
OLB	Lavonte David (R)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
OLB	Jamie Collins	New England Patriots
OLB	Sean Lee (R)	Dallas Cowboys
ILB	Bobby Wagner	Seattle Seahawks
ILB	Clay Matthews	Green Bay Packers
ILB	Luke Kuechly (I)	Carolina Panthers
ILB	NaVorro Bowman	San Francisco 49ers
CB	Aqib Talib (I)	Denver Broncos
CB	Adam Jones (R)	Cincinnati Bengals
CB	Richard Sherman	Seattle Seahawks
CB	Darrelle Revis (I)	New York Jets
CB	Patrick Peterson	Arizona Cardinals
CB	Marcus Peters	Kansas City Chiefs
CB	Josh Norman (I)	Carolina Panthers
CB	Chris Harris (I)	Denver Broncos
CB	Malcolm Butler	New England Patriots
CB	Desmond Trufant (R)	Atlanta Falcons
CB	Brent Grimes (R)	Miami Dolphins
CB	Jason Verrett (R)	San Diego Chargers
CB	Vontae Davis (R)	Indianapolis Colts
S	Charles Woodson	Oakland Raiders
S	Earl Thomas (I)	Seattle Seahawks
S	Harrison Smith (R)	Minnesota Vikings
S	Reggie Nelson (I)	Cincinnati Bengals
S	Reshad Jones (R)	Miami Dolphins
S	Mike Adams (R)	Indianapolis Colts
S	Tyrann Mathieu	Arizona Cardinals
S	Kam Chancellor (I)	Seattle Seahawks
S	Eric Berry	Kansas City Chiefs
K	Stephen Gostkowski	New England Patriots
K	Dan Bailey	Dallas Cowboys
P	Sam Koch	Baltimore Ravens
P	Johnny Hekker	Los Angeles Rams
PR	Darren Sproles	Philadelphia Eagles
PR	Tyler Lockett	Seattle Seahawks
ST	Matthew Slater	New England Patriots
ST	Justin Bethel	Arizona Cardinals
LS	Morgan Cox	Baltimore Ravens

Updating list available at NFL.com.

Captains

Eugene Tanner/Associated Press

Irvin and Rice cannot do it on their own, believe it or not. 

Perhaps one of the most interesting notes about the upcoming spectacle is who will help out the Hall of Famers. Darren Woodson will help Irvin as an assistant, with Eric Davis doing the same for Rice.

As for actual captains, the NFL chose the best of the best.

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins and Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman will captain one side. Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com shared a view of the Team Irvin captains:

The choices aren't hard to figure out. Few can do what Atkins does, and in a way he's helped alter the defensive tackle spot by being an effective interior rusher that can put pressure on quarterbacks. He ranked as the No. 2 defensive tackle in the league at Pro Football Focus.

As for Freeman, well, fans know the deal with arguably the year's biggest breakout star:

SEASON	GP	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD
2015	15	264	1,061	4.0	11

Rice isn't without his studs on either side of the ball, of course.

Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald actually ranked ahead of Atkins at PFF—the only player to do so—after recording a gaudy 11 sacks. Remember, that's from the defensive tackle spot, not some flashy position on the edge or in the secondary.

Folks know the final captain, one New York Giants wideout Odell Beckham, as maybe the flashiest player in the league. It was another banner year for Beckham, who finished with 96 catches for 1,450 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Long story short, the captains will help the legends draft the teams and go on to make a difference on the field, too. What's not to like? 

What to Expect

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Fireworks. Lots of 'em.

Remember last year? Team Irvin posted a 32-28 victory behind a pair of touchdowns from Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan. Team Carter got the same from Drew Brees and Andrew Luck, but the eventual winner also had Mark Ingram erupt for 72 rushing yards.

Expect plenty of unpredictability, too. This is the game, after all, that named Stafford MVP last time out, and the year before that gave the award to Nick Foles.

This year will be just as wild, with Tom Brady and a large number of players backing out thanks to the Super Bowl encounter between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.

In fact, one could expect this year's Pro Bowl to look more like a meeting of the league's future stars than anything else. Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will replace Brady. Other young guns such as Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater will also make the trip.

ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert explained the budding trend well, noting that the league might have quite an impressive theme on its hands:

"

If anything, this Pro Bowl will be a gathering of future stars. Perhaps that is an idea for Pro Bowls moving forward. There's nothing wrong with voting on a true year-end All-Star team, but perhaps the Pro Bowl could be played by promising younger players -- the Derek Carrs and Jameis Winstons of each season -- who would be eager to participate and to be marketed as the future of the league. Just a thought as the roster hemorrhage continues.

"

The league might be on to something here. While fans may dislike the fact some of the biggest stars cannot go because they are (unsurprisingly) playing in the Super Bowl or are too fatigued after a long season, it opens up the chance for a better game.

After all, young guys like Winston and Bridgewater and Carr might play the game tougher than veterans would, anyhow, with the bright lights of a national contest an opportunity to make more of a name for themselves in the long run before they too begin to take a pass on the vacation.

Either way, there will be a ton of scoring based on the current, still-updating roster above. Some of the league's best skill players will combine with some of the hungriest, most talented young quarterbacks to put on a show.

It isn't the Super Bowl by any means, but the Pro Bowl fills the gap quite well, and the young theme, a showcase of the league's future, is certainly something to keep in mind.

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and are accurate as of January 27. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus. All betting information courtesy of Odds Shark.