NFL team captains: who gets the “C” and why the number matters

Ahead of the 2025 season – which culminates in a neatly numeraled Super Bowl LX – the Tennessee Titans announced that they’d have seven captains. Rookie No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward is one of them, along with Calvin Ridley (WR), Tony Pollard (RB), Jeffery Simmons (DT), Amani Hooker (S), Cody Barton (LB), Morgan Cox (LS).

And on the back of that news, I saw some comments online asking why seven is better or worse than any other number; whether every team needed to stick to a limit; and a bunch of other related queries. So, here’s a little explainer to help anyone else pondering such doubts.

The first thing to state is that in some NFL teams, the captain’s “C” badge is a rare honor. On others, it feels like nearly half the locker room wears one. The difference can often tell us more about a team’s culture than most fans realize.

How many captains can an NFL team have?

There’s no league rule mandating how many captains each team names. The NFL permits teams to designate up to six game captains, with only one serving as the “speaking captain” for coin toss and penalty decisions.

Still, clubs can exceed that informally. In 2019, for instance, several teams named seven captains at the start of the season. In the 2024 season, the variation was clear:

• The 49ers had eight captains, many of them multi‑year leaders including Trent Williams and George Kittle
• The Eagles named seven, including veterans like Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown
• The Texans also went with seven captains, spanning offense, defense, and special teams
• The Vikings chose eight captains, also mixing offense, defense, and special teams
• The Bills kept it tight with just two captains – Josh Allen and Terrel Bernard – though they also deployed a broader leadership council
• The Giants named only five captains, their fewest since 2017

Why do some teams have more captains than others? How are they chosen?

Captaincy decisions can boil down to philosophy:

Scarcity = significance. Some coaches limit captain spots to preserve the role’s weight, making the “C” feel earned and exclusive.

Quantity = recognition. Others distribute the “C” more widely to reward veterans, flatten locker-room hierarchies, and encourage shared responsibility.

Selection methods also differ. Some teams appoint captains pre-season via coaches; others let players vote – sometimes elevating under-the-radar locker-room influencers over stat-stuffing stars.

What the captain’s patch really means

Introduced in 2007, the standardized “C” patch displays gold stars for each year a player has served as captain, turning entirely gold after four years. As mentioned, league rules cap the visible patch wearers at six players per game, even if more captains are named.

On special weeks – for breast cancer awareness or military recognition, for example – the patch may adopt pink or camouflage tones. Some teams, like the Steelers, name captains quietly without patches.

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