The latest statistics tell us that Marcus Mariota has the third-best passer rating (113.1) in the red zone among NFL quarterbacks this season, where he has authored 17 touchdowns without an interception.

But the looming question is: How are his dodgeball skills?

Talents honed on the playground as a fourth grader at Nuuanu Elementary before he began playing organized football figure to come in handy next month in Orlando, Fla., where, as part of the Pro Bowl, quarterbacks will take part in a skills competition to include dodgeball.

Officially, Mariota, the Tennessee Titans’ quarterback, this week was named an alternate at the quarterback position for the AFC in the Jan. 29 game. But Pro Bowl turnover being more dynamic than changes in the Italian Government, it would be hard to imagine Mariota not getting the call.

For one thing, one of the three quarterbacks voted ahead of him, New England’s Tom Brady, the starter, or one of the backups, Derek Carr of Oakland and Ben Roethlisberger of Pittsburgh, will likely end up in the Super Bowl, opening up a spot.

Then there are injuries — real and imagined — and a general indifference that annually dilutes the ranks. Seattle’s Russell Wilson was the only quarterback voted into the 2016 game who actually remained on the roster come kickoff time.

This year’s other AFC alternate at quarterback, Philip Rivers, has declined invitations to the last two Pro Bowls.

For another, do you really expect Brady or Roethlisberger, who passed on participation in last year’s game when there was no skills competition, to come play dodgeball? Not to mention participate in the “power relay challenge”, “precision passing” and “best hands competition.”

Knowing Mariota, he’ll jump right in. Probably with a smile, too.

This is what you do when you have grown up with the Pro Bowl in your backyard as Mariota has. This is the mind-set when you have stood in lines, sometimes for hours, to secure autographs or faithfully turned out at Kapiolani Park for the “Pro Bowl Experience” satellite events.

Which is how, as Mariota has put it, playing in the game would be “like a dream come true.”

Fact is Mariota is precisely the kind of willing and engaging participant the NFL needs to inject some excitement in the event if its annual all-star exhibition is to survive much longer.

The game itself is a tottering anachronism the league and its partners hardly seem to know what to do with. And the paydays (in 2016, players on the winning team each received $58,000. Players on the losing team got $29,000) that come with it are hardly the enticement they once were to well-paid stars.

And, now, it is no longer in Hawaii. Which, as Detroit cornerback Darius Slay — what, no free trip to Hawaii? — has reminded us, meant something to at least some of the players.

Instead of being held at Aloha Stadium, where it resided for 35 of the last 37 years, the event has landed for the foreseeable future at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. And nobody is talking about it returning to these shores anytime. Soon or otherwise.

To be sure, this probably isn’t the Pro Bowl Mariota dreamed of when he was a youngster while standing in line with his brother, Matt, and father, Toa, to collect autographs. Back then, the skills challenge was for kids.

Time to polish up those dodgeball skills.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.