Nick Sirianni Scaled Back on Eagles' Captains This Season

The Eagles head coach felt there were too many captains last season and scaled back from none to seven.

Eagles WR Devonta Smith / John McMullen/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles downgraded from nine captains to seven this season. Only one player who wore the “C” on his jersey last season did not repeat: fourth-year receiver DeVonta Smith.

The other 2023 team captains who aren't set for the role again this season are the retired Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox. 

Quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receiver A.J. Brown, right tackle Lane Johnson, left tackle Jordan Mailata, defensive end Brandon Graham, cornerback Darius Slay, and kicker Jake Elliott are the 2024 team leaders. The only first-timer in that group is Mailata.

"Just because you didn't get as many votes this year doesn't mean you aren't a leader on this team just because you don't have a “C” on your chest,” Sirianni said Sunday when asked about Smith being the only non-repeat captain.

Sirianni noted a lot of players got votes but “last year I thought we may have had too many [captains],” so the idea was to streamline a little bit.

Mailata has taken on a more vocal role with Kelce gone even going so far as to enforce “the standard” early in training camp when there were too many false-start penalties at practice.

In a self-enforcement tactic Mailata has the entire offensive line run gassers as punishment after the practice.

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