National Football League team captains

Explanation and list of NFL captains

New York Jets 1st-year captain patch Indianapolis Colts 3rd-year captain patch Chicago Bears 5+-year captain patch

In the National Football League (NFL), the team captain designation is a team-appointed position that designates certain players as leaders on and off the field. The captains program was implemented by the NFL Player Advisory Council established by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in conjunction with the NFL Players Association. Starting in 2007, the league began permitting teams to name up to six players as captains.[1]

## Rules

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NFL rule 18 details the guidelines for team captains. Within Rule 18, there are four articles that pertain to:

1. Number of team captains
2. Coin toss procedures
3. Choice on penalty option
4. Change of [team] captains

Coin toss procedures – Each team can send as many as six team captains to the center of the field. On each team, one captain is designated the "speaking captain" of the delegation. The visiting team or the team designated "visitor" by the referee (if no team is declared 'visitor') shall choose "heads or tails" or in the case of a special ceremony coin, the options on the face and rear of that coin.

After the winning captain makes their choice, the opposing team captain chooses from the remaining two options.

Choice on penalty option(s) – The offended team captain has a choice of accepting a penalty enforcement or declining, except where said penalty is automatically "enforced by rule". In some circumstances, a team captain may elect to "decline" the penalty. This typically happens in a situation in which declining the penalty may mean that the next down should occur (3rd or 4th). A good example would be on an "offensive holding" enforcement, the defensive team might elect a "4th down and 5 yards to gain" v. a "3rd down and 15 yards to gain."

## The "C" patch

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Players who have been named a team captain typically wear a "C" patch on their jerseys. There is a standard design used by all teams participating in the captaincy program. The patches are in team colors and are worn on the front left or right breast (depending on other patches, etc. worn by the specific team). The number of gold stars on the patch represents the number of years that player has been named captain by a team. If he has been named captain for longer than four years, the "C" on the patch is gold. On some teams' color rush jerseys, plus the Cincinnati Bengals' white uniforms, the stars (and "C", for captains with over four years of service) use team colors.

During special recognitions, the patch may be a different color such as pink for breast cancer awareness or camouflage for military service recognition.[2] In 2018, NFL began an partnership with the American Cancer Society using a multi-color captain patch.[3]

Some teams (e.g. Pittsburgh and New England under former head coach Bill Belichick) do not use the patch on their jerseys but still designate captains. The decision to wear or not wear patches can come from the coach or a team vote.[4] Pittsburgh has never used captains patches during the lengthy tenure of head coach Mike Tomlin, although they have named permanent captains. To date, they are the only team to have never worn patches. Baltimore had never worn patches either until the 2025 postseason.

Other teams who do not use the patch designate captains weekly. John Harbaugh has followed this practice in the regular season since becoming head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, however, he surprisingly switched to using playoff captains in 2024, and the Ravens donned patches for the first time in franchise history.[5] This is the same practice as the Green Bay Packers have often followed: the team named weekly captains during the regular season, but would switch to assigning captains (who wore patches) for the entire postseason whenever they qualified. Mike McCarthy kept this up when he became coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. With the hiring of head coach Matt LaFleur in 2019, the Packers began assigning three weekly captains alongside three permanent captains, but in 2023 they reverted back to weekly captains for the regular season and individual playoff games, with no patches. The Kansas City Chiefs also only name captains for their playoff runs.

By and large, teams do not adorn the jerseys of weekly captains with patches. However, in 2019 the Carolina Panthers voted Gerald McCoy as a captain for their Week 2 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and affixed a patch to his jersey.[6] He continued wearing the patch as the season continued in light of an injury to Kawann Short. Similarly, London native Efe Obada was voted a team captain for the Panthers' game there in 2019.[7]

In 2019, the NFL changed captains' patches slightly, removing the white outline at the patch's edge. Also, instead of stars "filled-in" with gold coloring to indicate years as a captain alongside "unfilled-in" white stars (i.e. a player who was in his second year as a captain would have 2 gold stars and 2 white stars on his patch), the patch now simply has gold stars indicating years served.

## Designation

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While NFL rules state that teams may name up to six captains, this rule is not strictly enforced. In 2019, four teams named seven captains at the beginning of the regular season: the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, and New York Giants. That same year, the Carolina Panthers dressed seven players wearing captain patches for their week 2 matchup against Tampa Bay: Cam Newton, Greg Olsen, Trai Turner, Luke Kuechly, Gerald McCoy, Kawann Short, and Colin Jones.

Captains are sometimes decided by team-wide vote, and other times are chosen by the team's head coach.[8] Captains are generally named after the preseason ends, and just prior to the start of the regular season. In the event of an injury to a team captain requiring them to miss one or more games during the season, a replacement may be named. The decision to name (whether weekly or permanently) or not name captains rests with the head coach, who can suspend captainships should they so choose.

One notable example of suspension occurred when the New York Jets ended the use of designated team captains after an incident involving Santonio Holmes in a 2011 game. In the fourth quarter of the final game of the 2011 season against the Miami Dolphins, Holmes appeared to get into an argument with Jets offensive tackle Wayne Hunter while the team was huddling. As a result of the argument, Holmes was benched for the remainder of the game, and the Jets ended up losing the game, which resulted in the Jets missing the postseason for the first time in three years. Rex Ryan, coach of the Jets at the time, suspended the captains program for the organization. In 2015, under new head coach Todd Bowles, the Jets resumed appointing captains weekly.[9] In Week 2 of 2018, Bowles resumed permanent captains, introduced when the Jets played the Dolphins.[10]

Because of the nature of the game, most teams include their starting quarterbacks as an offensive captain. The starting quarterback has no other responsibility or authority on field. However, he may, depending on the league or individual team, have various informal duties, such as participation in pre-game ceremonies, the coin toss, the trophy presentation, or other events outside the game. Often compared to captains of other team sports, the starting quarterback is considered the team's leader, even before the NFL implemented the team captain's patch in 2007.

## Gold stars

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Each gold star on a captain's patch indicates the number of seasons the player has served as a team captain. These are often consecutive, but not always as former Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston wore three stars on his 2019 patch despite not being named a captain the previous season; he wore four stars on his 2021 patch for New Orleans. The Panthers gave Trai Turner a gold patch in week 8 of their 2019 season after he missed 3 games due to an ankle injury, though he wore a patch with only 1 star during his previous game in week 3. Case Keenum wore a patch with two stars in week 1 of the 2019 season, but from week 2 on Keenum wore a captain's patch with 4 stars, despite only serving as a captain two seasons of his career. Teams have often used captains patches erroneously and without regard to the stars, with discrepancies occurring even mid-season. In 2017, Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams wore a patch with 5 stars and a gold 'C', but the Bills admitted this was a mistake.[11]

## List of current NFL captains

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Players listed in bold currently wear the 4+ star all-gold captain patches. These players have been team captains for at least four seasons, but not necessarily consecutively.

†Indicates teams not using captain patches during the 2024 season.

*Indicates the number of years a player has served as a captain, represented on the patch by stars.

Team  | Offensive captain(s)  | Defensive captain(s)  | Special teams captain(s)

|
|
|

Arizona Cardinals[12] | James Conner***, Kyler Murray | Budda Baker, Kyzir White**  | None
Atlanta Falcons[13] | Kirk Cousins, Jake Matthews****  | Jessie Bates III***, Grady Jarrett | None
Baltimore Ravens[14] | Mark Andrews*, Derrick Henry*, Lamar Jackson*  | Marlon Humphrey*, Roquan Smith*  | Chris Board*
Buffalo Bills[15] | Josh Allen | Terrel Bernard*  | None
Carolina Panthers[16] | Bryce Young**  | Derrick Brown*, Shaq Thompson | Sam Franklin Jr.*
Chicago Bears[17] | Cole Kmet*, Marcedes Lewis*, D. J. Moore**, Caleb Williams*  | Kevin Byard*, Tremaine Edmunds**, T.J. Edwards*, Jaylon Johnson*  | None
Cincinnati Bengals[18] | Orlando Brown Jr.*, Joe Burrow, Ted Karras****  | Vonn Bell****, Sam Hubbard****, Germaine Pratt*  | Akeem Davis-Gaither*, Evan McPherson*
Cleveland Browns[19] | Joel Bitonio****, Deshaun Watson**  | Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward*  | Charley Hughlett
Dallas Cowboys (From 2023)  | Zack Martin, Dak Prescott | DeMarcus Lawrence****  | Bryan Anger***, Brandon Aubrey*
Denver Broncos[20] | Quinn Meinerz*, Bo Nix*, Courtland Sutton****  | Alex Singleton**, Patrick Surtain II*  | Wil Lutz*
Detroit Lions[21] | Jared Goff, Penei Sewell**, Amon-Ra St. Brown**  | Alex Anzalone****, Aidan Hutchinson*  | Jalen Reeves-Maybin***
Green Bay Packers[22]†  | Appointed weekly
Houston Texans[23] | Stefon Diggs****, Joe Mixon****, C.J. Stroud**, Laremy Tunsil***  | Azeez Al-Shaair**, Will Anderson Jr.**, Jimmie Ward****  | Jon Weeks**
Indianapolis Colts[24] | Ryan Kelly**, Quenton Nelson****, Michael Pittman Jr.*, Anthony Richardson**, Jonathan Taylor**  | DeForest Buckner, Kenny Moore II***  | Zaire Franklin
Jacksonville Jaguars[25] | Trevor Lawrence****, Evan Engram*  | Josh Hines-Allen****, Foye Oluokun***  | Logan Cooke*
Kansas City Chiefs[26] | Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes | Nick Bolton**, Chris Jones***  | Harrison Butker, James Winchester*
Las Vegas Raiders[27] | Kolton Miller***, Gardner Minshew**  | Maxx Crosby****, Robert Spillane**  | AJ Cole**
Los Angeles Chargers[28] | Bradley Bozeman*, Justin Herbert****, Rashawn Slater*  | Derwin James****, Khalil Mack, Denzel Perryman*  | Appointed weekly
Los Angeles Rams[29] | Rob Havenstein***, Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford | Quentin Lake*, Kobie Turner*  | None
Miami Dolphins[30] | Terron Armstead, Tyreek Hill***, Alec Ingold***, Tua Tagovailoa***  | Jalen Ramsey***, Zach Sieler*, Calais Campbell | None
Minnesota Vikings[31] | Sam Darnold****, Justin Jefferson**, Brian O’Neill****  | Josh Metellus***, Harrison Phillips*, Harrison Smith | Andrew DePaola**, C. J. Ham****
New England Patriots[32] | David Andrews, Jacoby Brissett*  | Ja'Whaun Bentley****, Jabrill Peppers***, Deatrich Wise Jr.***  | Joe Cardona*
New Orleans Saints[33] | Derek Carr, Taysom Hill*, Erik McCoy*  | Demario Davis, Cameron Jordan, Tyrann Mathieu | J. T. Gray***, Zach Wood*
New York Giants[34] | Andrew Thomas***  | Dexter Lawrence***, Bobby Okereke**  | Casey Kreiter**
New York Jets[35] | Aaron Rodgers | C.J. Mosley, Quinnen Williams**  | Thomas Morstead
Philadelphia Eagles[36] | A. J. Brown**, Jalen Hurts****, Lane Johnson***, Jordan Mailata*  | Brandon Graham, Darius Slay***  | Jake Elliott***
Pittsburgh Steelers[37]†  | Russell Wilson | Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt | Miles Killebrew
San Francisco 49ers[38] | Kyle Juszczyk*, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey*, Brock Purdy**, Deebo Samuel**, Trent Williams | Nick Bosa**, Fred Warner | None
Seattle Seahawks[39]†  | Appointed weekly
Tampa Bay Buccaneers[40] | Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Tristan Wirfs**  | Lavonte David, Antoine Winfield Jr.**, Vita Vea***  | None
Tennessee Titans[41] | Lloyd Cushenberry*, Will Levis*  | Kenneth Murray*, Jeffery Simmons****  | Morgan Cox**
Washington Commanders[42] | Jayden Daniels*, Zach Ertz*, Terry McLaurin | Bobby Wagner | Jeremy Reaves**

## References

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1. ^ * Darlington, Jeff (September 6, 2012). "NFL captains: 'C' patch comes with varied roles, responsibilities". National Football League. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
2. ^ "NFL supports Breast Cancer Awareness Month". National Football League. September 28, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
3. ^ "NFL Crucial Catch". NFL.com.
4. ^ "Why Titans Captains Aren't Wearing the "C" Patch".
5. ^ "The Explanation Behind the Ravens' New Captain Patches". Retrieved January 12, 2025.
6. ^ "Gerald McCoy: 'I've been watching y'all dominate this group for years'".
7. ^ "Efe Obada on emotional London return with Carolina Panthers: 'It will stay with me for the rest of my life'". October 13, 2019.
8. ^ "Ask Farmer: What do the stars under the 'C' of the captain's football jersey mean?". Los Angeles Times. September 16, 2018.
9. ^ "Source: Captain Holmes 'quit' on Jets in loss". go.com. January 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
10. ^ "Why Todd Bowles finally selected five Jets captains". September 28, 2018.
11. ^ "'C' Stands for 'Confusing' › Uni Watch". October 26, 2017.
12. ^ McManaman, Bob. "Cardinals Name Captains For 2024 Season With Player Vote". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
13. ^ Waack, Terrin (September 2, 2024). "Falcons name four team captains for 2024 season". Retrieved September 2, 2024.
14. ^ "The Explanation Behind the Ravens' New Captain Patches". Retrieved January 12, 2025.
15. ^ "Bills named these players as 2024 team captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
16. ^ "Panthers name four captains for 2024, including Bryce Young, two veteran defenders". panthers.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
17. ^ "Bears announce eight season-long captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
18. ^ "Bengals Announce 2043 Team Captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
19. ^ "Myles Garrett and Deshaun Watson among 5 team captains for the Browns". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
20. ^ "HC Sean Payton announces 2024 season captains as chosen by Broncos players". denverbroncos.com. September 4, 2024. Retrieved September 5, 2024.
21. ^ "Detroit Lions announce six captains for 2024 season". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
22. ^ "Packers won't have permanent captains in 2024". Retrieved September 7, 2024.
23. ^ "7 Texans named as team captains for 2024 season". HoustonTexans.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
24. ^ "Colts announce 8 team captains for 2024 season". Colts.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
25. ^ "Jacksonville Jaguars Name Captains for 2024 Season". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
26. ^ "Chiefs announce their six captains for the NFL postseason with a GQ-style photo". January 19, 2025.
27. ^ "Raiders announce team captains for 2022 season". raiders.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
28. ^ "Chargers announce captains for 2024 NFL season".
29. ^ "Rams name 2023 season captains". rams.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
30. ^ "'They've earned their stripes.' Meet your 2024 Miami Dolphins captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
31. ^ "Vikings 2024 Captains Named as Team Unveils Jim Marshall Legacy Display". vikings.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
32. ^ "Patriots Announce 2024 Captains". patriots.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
33. ^ "Discover the New Captains of the Saints—Unveiled Today!". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
34. ^ "Giants vote 5 team captains for 2024 season". giants.com. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
35. ^ "Jets Name Aaron Rodgers, C.J. Mosley, Quinnen Williams and Thomas Morstead 2024 Team Captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
36. ^ "Eagles announce 7 team captains for the 2024 season".
37. ^ "Steelers name team captains for 2023 NFL season". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
38. ^ "49ers Announce 2022 Team Captains". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
39. ^ "Seattle Seahawks Make Change to Captain Selection Process". Retrieved September 10, 2024.
40. ^ "Bucs Choose 2024 Captains, Lavonte David Gets 11th "C" of His Career". buccaneers.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
41. ^ "Titans Vote Five Team Captains for 2024 Season". tennesseetitans.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
42. ^ "Washington Commanders' New Team Captains Approach Under Dan Quinn's Leadership". Commanders.com. Retrieved September 10, 2024.