Broncos Announce 5 Team Captains for 2022 Season

The Denver Broncos chose players with experience and individual accolades to serve as team captains.

The Denver Broncos are on the doorstep of the 2022 regular season. This year's campaign starts with a Monday Night Football bout at the Seattle Seahawks. 

With the season-opener now less than a week away, the Broncos announced on Tuesday the naming of five team captains — two on offense, two on defense, and one on special teams.  

• QB Russell Wilson
• WR Courtland Sutton
• S Justin Simmons
• OLB Bradley Chubb
• K Brandon McManus

Our 2022 Denver Broncos captains, as voted on by the team! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/QaRBqT3G1Y

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 6, 2022

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Head coach Nathaniel Hackett is taking the opposite tack that his predecessor, Vic Fangio, did. Fangio infamously opted not to allow his team to name season-long captains, instead going with individual game captains. 

The final analysis of last year's 7-10 Broncos likely reveals the wisdom of Fangio's decision. Hackett, despite his new-school approach to coaching, is taking a more traditional path concerning the naming of team captains. 

It ostensibly allows the locker room to know going into the season who the leaders are on all three sides of the ball, and allows those respective captains to posture themselves for the long slog of a season as both leaders and mentors. This is still a relatively young roster, so each player knowing who to turn to for leadership, instruction, and direction before the season even starts makes for a more efficient chain of command. 

Kudos to Coach Hackett for seeing the importance of that. The Broncos have a combined 12 Pro Bowl selections among their team captaincy. 

McManus is the only team captain without a Pro Bowl nod on his NFL resume. But he's also one of two captains with a Super Bowl ring, with Wilson being the other. 

That's experience. That's wisdom. 

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