Eagles announce 9 captains for the 2023 season

The Philadelphia Eagles officially announced nine team captains for the 2023 NFL season. Nick Sirianni has typically allowed players to vote for their captains as opposed to the coaching staff choosing them.

2023 Eagles captains

The following players will wear ‘C’ patches on their uniforms this year:

QB Jalen Hurts

WR A.J. Brown

WR DeVonta Smith

C Jason Kelce

OT Lane Johnson

DT Fletcher Cox

DE Brandon Graham

CB Darius Slay

K Jake Elliott

OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS

• This is the same captains list as last year ... plus the new additions of Brown and Smith.
• Guessing that the players and the team were probably aligned in not wanting to choose one star receiver over the other as a captain. And so they both earned that status. The honor seems especially impressive for Smith considering he’s only entering Year 3 in the NFL.
• There seems to be some sentiment that the Eagles can’t possibly keep both Brown and Smith in the future, which is something that shouldn’t even be worried about right now. But I don’t think that’s true. And I expect the Eagles to keep both as long as possible as long as they’re producing.
• Nine captains is a lot; it’s nearly 17% of the 53-man roster.
• Hurts is entering his third straight year as a team captain. He’ll have three gold stars under his ‘C’ patch.
• As team captains for at least five straight years (six now), Kelce and Cox will continue to wear the patch where the gold ‘C’ is displayed above four gold stars.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

• Graham will now join Kelce and Cox with a gold ‘C’ since this is his fifth captaincy in the last seven years.
• Johnson is entering his second season as a team captain. Ditto for Slay and Elliott.
• Experienced veterans who were notably not named captains: Haason Reddick, James Bradberry, Josh Sweat, Dallas Goedert.
• Some potential future captains: Reddick, Sweat, Goedert, Reed Blankenship, Nakobe Dean, Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter, Sydney Brown.