Thoughts on the 2022 Dolphins Captains

The Miami Dolphins announced their seven captains for the 2022 season and they include QB Tua Tagovailoa along with newcomers Tyreek Hill and Terron Armstead

Alain Poupart - SI Fan Nation All Dolphins

Out of nowhere, the Miami Dolphins announced their 2022 captain Thursday, and it certainly was an interesting list.

The Dolphins will have seven season captains, three on offense and four on defense. They are quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tackle Terron Armstead, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, linebacker Elandon Roberts, cornerback Xavien Howard and safety Jevon Holland.

Head coach Mike McDaniel said before practice Thursday the captains were selected through a player vote, and he said that Tagovailoa got the most votes.

"The only thing that I gave the players was like, 'Who do you want, representing you each and every game? Who do you want to wear the C, and understand what that C means on your jersey,' " McDaniel said. "And I think it speaks volumes on where (Tua is) at with the team and their belief in him, like all the captains that were voted. It's a tremendous honor, especially in a situation where it's 100% player-controlled, so all those captain award winners were bestowed that anointment by their peers, and I think that's the greatest honor you can have in a team sport, especially the biggest team sport, which is professional football."

ROBERTS THE ONE REPEAT CAPTAIN

Props to Elandon Roberts, who has made it 3-for-3 in being elected a team captain with the Dolphins, and even bigger props when you consider he's done all three times on a one-year contract.

There was a few reasons Brian Flores brought him from New England in 2020, and maybe at the top of that list was his leadership ability.

Roberts is the only repeat captain for the Dolphins; the other 2021 captains were G/T Jesse Davis, WR Mack Hollins, DB Jason McCourty and special teams standout Clayton Fejedelem. Of those four, Fejedelem is the only one still with the Dolphins and he also had been a captain in 2020, his first year with the team after arriving as an unrestricted free agent from Cincinnati.

FIRST-TIME CAPTAINS

Along with Tua, Howard, Wilkins and Holland also are captains for the first time in the NFL, and it's especially impressive for Holland being that he's only 22 and in his second season.

Howard has been the Dolphins' best player for a few years now, but he's always been pretty quiet in going about his business and he admitted to being surprised at being selected as a captain.

"I'm like, oh (crap)," Howard said. "I don't know. I just haven't been a captain since I've been here.  I don't really talk that much. But the guys in my room, I do talk to them. But outside of that, I'm really just a lead-by-example guy."

Howard says his style won't change because he'll now have a "C" on his jersey.

"I feel like I'll be the same person," he said. "I let my play speak for me."

ARMSTEAD AND HILL

That Armstead and Hill would end up being captains really shouldn't have come as a surprise given their resume, as well as how vocal Hill has been since arriving in that trade with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Armstead was a captain for the Saints for several years before joining the Dolphins, while Hill once served as a captain in the playoffs for the Chiefs, who rotated captains during the regular season.

Having newcomers become a team captain is not unusual and having two of them pales in comparison to 2020 when the Dolphins have five newcomers among their eight captains: Ted Karras, Kyle Van Noy, Kavon Frazier, Roberts and Fejedelem.

"It's an honor, it's an honor," Armstead said. "It's not something I take lightly at all. I wear that badge with high integrity, take it very serious. So anything I can do for any one of these guys, I'm available."