NFL Pro Bowl Skills Showdown 2017: Results, Highlights and Twitter Reaction

With the Pro Bowl still to come Sunday, the NFC gained early bragging rights over the AFC after prevailing 3-2 in the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown. 

The event began with the Best Hands competition. Jarvis Landry narrowly edged out his former LSU Tigers teammate Odell Beckham Jr. by 0.2 seconds.

Beckham appeared to be in a great position to win after posting a time of 52.8 seconds. After Mike Evans and T.Y. Hilton both struggled to complete the one-handed catch, the New York Giants wideout made it look easy, courtesy of the NFL:

Landry, the last competitor to go, zoomed through the course, however. The NFL shared a replay of his run:

The NFL on ESPN showed that Beckham wasn't too upset to finish second:

The NFC tied things up in the Power Relay Challenge.

The competition wasn't without controversy. During one portion of the relay, three players had to push a weighted sled. 

As Thomas Davis, Gerald McCoy and Jason Kelce were attempting to push the sled, it stopped abruptly. They then ceased pushing and demanded for time to be stopped. Dean Blandino, the NFL's senior vice president of officiating, said on the ESPN broadcast the NFC would receive a redo since the sled malfunctioned.

NFL.com's Dan Hanzus thought seeing Blandino in a referee uniform alone was worth tuning in to the Skills Showdown:

The NFC capitalized on its mulligan, with Ezekiel Elliott crashing through the foam barrier in 28.7 seconds—four seconds better than the AFC.

CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora and Awful Announcing were enjoying the change of pace the Skills Showdown provided:

While Beckham finished runner-up to Landry in Best Hands, he gave the NFC its second victory after placing first in the Drone Drop. The NFL provided multiple angles of his clinching catch:

Philip Rivers' 60.4 completion percentage was his lowest since 2007, but the Los Angeles Chargers quarterback reigned supreme in Precision Passing to bring the AFC level with the NFC, 2-2.

Of the four passers involved, Rivers was the only one who hit the five-point target, which carried the highest value of any single target. That proved to be the difference.

The Chargers celebrated Rivers on Twitter:

The NFL saved the best for last, as the Epic Pro Bowl Dodgeball competition determined the Skills Showdown winner.

The AFC lost six players—Rivers, Geno Atkins, Joe Thomas, Jay Ajayi, Andy Dalton and Von Miller—before legends captain Jerome Bettis called a timeout to regroup.

The timeout didn't make a difference for the conference. Hilton was the last man standing for the AFC. He got the NFC down to four players before he was unable to haul in a throw from Elliott.

CBSSports.com's John Breech still praised the Indianapolis Colts wide receiver for attempting to overcome the odds:

All in all, the Skills Showdown was a pleasant diversion ahead of the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl LI, which kicks off Feb. 5.

The event may also result in a slight bump in Pro Bowl viewership. According to SportsBusiness Daily's Austin Karp, the 2016 edition set a new low in overnight rating (5.0).

The Skills Showdown was arguably a success in its first year, and the NFL will decide if it needs tweaks to make it better in 2018.