The Giants have announced five team captains for the 2024 NFL season, as voted on by the players.
Head coach Brian Daboll announced the offense will be represented by quarterback Daniel Jones and left tackle Andrew Thomas, the defense by defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and linebacker Bobby Okereke and special teams by long snapper Casey Kreiter.
This is half as many captains as a year ago, with kicker Graham Gano being the only former captain to not be selected again who is still on Big Blue’s roster as Saquon Barkley (Philadelphia), Adoree’ Jackson (free agent), Xavier McKinney (Green Bay), Darren Waller (retired) and Leonard Williams (Seattle) are all no longer with the team.
“This year there’s less captains, so I think that holds a little more weight. Guys respect you in the locker room,” Thomas said on Tuesday. “We brought a lot of other veteran guys along, even if they’re not captains, that have done a good job, on both sides of the ball, just being leaders and trying to get everybody on the same page.”
Five is the fewest number of captains New York has had since the 2017 season. They had ten in each in the first two seasons under Daboll.
Okereke said there is not “necessarily” added weight to the role with fewer captains.
“Every year is a different year, every team’s a new team,” the linebacker said. “So I think the best fit for our team this year was the five captains. Great guys who have different leadership styles, different experiences and wisdom, and I think we’ll do a great job.”
On the different styles, “some guys lead by example, some guys are rah-rah guys. It just adds to the collective.”
This is the fifth-straight season Jones has been named team captain, with Thomas and Lawrence serving for the third straight season and Okereke a second-straight year.
Okereke called the smaller leadership group the “right fit” for the team, but indicated the smaller group wasn’t necessarily by design, believing “that’s just how the votes came out.”
Kreiter was the only new captain for this year, but he previously served in his role for the 2021 season.
Source Agencies
