Pro Bowl 2016: Date, Start Time, Format, Players and Preview

After a quick stop in the Southwestern United States in 2015, the NFL Pro Bowl makes its triumphant return to Aloha Stadium in Honolulu for the 2016 edition of this annual exhibition of football talent. 

Since 1979, all but two Pro Bowls have taken place in Hawaii: the 2015 edition in Glendale, Arizona, and the 2010 game at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Pro Bowl features the NFL's best and brightest stars who are not prepping for the Super Bowl, so it might as well be at a preferred vacation destination. It's only right.

Here's a quick rundown of what fans can expect for this season's Pro Bowl.


Date, Start Time

The 2016 Pro Bowl is scheduled for January 31 at 8 p.m. ET. ESPN will televise the contest, which in its current iteration takes place one week prior to the Super Bowl. For ticket info, check ScoreBig.com.

For many years, the Pro Bowl came after the Super Bowl, making it perhaps the the most anticlimactic exhibition in all of American sports. Now that it takes place prior to the big game, fans at least still have football firmly on the mind (though the game itself is still a bit farcical due to the inherent risk of playing this brutal sport and the nonexistent stakes of the Hawaii contest).

Format, Players and Preview

The 2016 Pro Bowl will continue the the sandlot, draft format adopted in 2014, where two legendary NFLers serve as team captains and select from the entire pool of qualified players for their respective squads, rather than pitting conference against conference.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

According to a league press release, 2016's esteemed captains are legendary wide receivers Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice. Irvin served as a captain in 2015, while Rice participated in the first version of the new format in 2014. 

The players involved in the Pro Bowl are determined by fan voting, players and coaches. According to NFL.com's Dan Hanzus on December 17, quarterbacks Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Carson Palmer and Aaron Rodgers led the league in fan voting in that order. It's almost a guarantee at least one of those players, and more likely two of them, won't be available for the exhibition due to pesky Super Bowl duty. 

Hanzus has the rundown on when the players will be revealed and why the draft is worth watching:

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The Pro Bowl players are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. The Pro Bowl players will be revealed exclusively on NFL Network on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. ET.

The teams are constructed during a live Pro Bowl draft with "general managers" Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice. The draft will be aired on ESPN2 and is worth watching for no other reason than seeing things get awkward when Rice's decision-making gets rightfully lampooned.

Also, there was that one time Mooch and Marshall Faulk were almost blown into the mouth of the mighty Pacific. They won't be there this year, unfortunately.

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With quarterbacks dominating in voting, it only follows that the threshold for wide receivers might be incredibly tough for this season's Pro Bowl. According to NJ.com's Jordan Raanan, New York's Odell Beckham Jr., Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown and Atlanta's Julio Jones finished one-two-three in fan voting. All three players are wholly deserving of the votes, and should be locks for the big game. 

Beyond them, there's a ton of talent worth inviting, far more than the game needs. How about Houston's DeAndre Hopkins, who's been good for a jaw-dropping highlight just about every week this year and ranks fourth in the league in receiving yards. There's Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, bouncing back for a strong season at age 32 when some might've thought his best days were behind him after a trying 2014 campaign (blame the quarterbacks). 

Jacksonville's Allen Robinson is another strong candidate. The second-year man is tied for the league lead with 13 receiving touchdowns, a stellar feat considering his QB Blake Bortles is only in his second year and managed just 11 total touchdown passes as a rookie. 

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

With so much veteran talent in the mix, it's possible that Robinson might get passed over this year, although that would be a real shame. If that does come to pass, it sounds like Robinson won't let it get to him.

“I’m not going to deny that it’d be pretty cool to have,” Robinson said prior his team's Week 15, postseason-chance killing loss to Atlanta, per Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union. “It’d be an awesome opportunity and experience, but at the same time, I don’t lose sleep over that. We’ve got bigger things to worry about in Jacksonville.”

Beyond the six wide receivers mentioned above, there are seven other wideouts already beyond 1,000 yards receiving this year, and several more set to break that threshold with two weeks remaining.

Rookies in the mix for the Pro Bowl include St. Louis running back Todd Gurley, Buffalo Bills cornerback Ronald Darby and Kansas City corner Marcus Peters. Those players and other young guns appear destined for future superstardom, but hey, sometimes the future is now. The Pro Bowl should reflect that.