Why did Rams name so many captains for 2026
Mike Florio and Chris Simms react to the Rams naming 11 captains for the 2026 season, questioning why Sean McVay and Co. decided to name so many captains.
Video Transcript
You know, we've been talking from time to time recently about the possibility that the NFL is moving toward putting ads on the jerseys.
Well, for 11 players on the Rams, there would be less space for the ad- because they're gonna be wearing the C on their jersey.
Pete Demoulakis sent this last night.
At first I thought it was a joke, and it's like, this is real.
The Los Angeles Rams have named 11 captains, 11 for 2026.
Are you kidding me?
Look, I got a ton of respect for the Rams, but it makes no sense to have 11 captains.
Unless Sean McVay is making his own commentary on the fact that some teams will have six or eight, maybe he just decided, "Screw it, man, let's just give a C to anyone we wanna give a C to."
Yeah.
"Let's just do it."
Yeah, yeah.
"Who cares?"
If they're not gonna put a limit on it 'Cause it should be one on offense, one on defense, one on special teams.
You should have three captains.
That's it.
All teams.
And that applies to We'll be seeing it over the course of the next week.
There'll be six captains.
There will be.
There'll be five, there'll be seven, there'll be eight, and I've never seen 11 before.
11 is beyond the point of ridiculous.
It, it is a little ridiculous.
There, there's no doubt about it.
I, I mean, first off, the coin toss is gonna be hilarious.
They all gonna go out there and line up?
Are they gonna line up in a formation, an offensive formation, and then act like they're gonna run a play?
I mean it's 11 guys.
I've never seen that, that's for sure.
It looks like they tried to take a player from each position group, right?
And make him a captain.
Yes.
See, this is the problem when you This, these are problems when you d- when you have This is a good problem when you have stars who look at themselves and feel that they're leaders, right?
They don't wanna hurt anybody's feelings, the coaches, the organization.
So they're like, "Damn."
I mean, Davante Adams, he's a captain.
Damn, Miles Garrett, he's a captain.
Damn, you know, Trent McDuffie, he's a leader.
He wants to be a captain.
Oh man, Kyren Williams is one of our better offensive players.
He's a leader, he wants to be a captain.
Our quarterback wants to be the captain.
And so they got all these marquee players who have done great things in the NFL, who look at themselves as leaders.
And I think this is where McVay and company were probably a little like, "Ah, I don't know what to do."
Some of these guys might be a little, you know, hurt or disgruntled if they're not captains.
And so it is gonna be odd, and I don't know if they're gonna take turns at the coin toss or whatever, but yeah, it is a little ridiculous to have 11.
Matthew Stafford, Miles Garrett, Joe Cardona.
Boom, that's it.
Quarterback, the cornerstone of your defense, and the long snapper.
He's the special teams representative, so that includes the kicker and the punter and the holder.
So Cardona, Stafford, and Garrett.
That's it.
And you know, of the 11, Aaron Donald wasn't one of them.
Yeah.
Which is kind of odd.
He's the elder statesman.
He took a couple of years off, but he knows that team better than any of those guys.
He's been there since 2014.
And also, I thought it was a little conspicuous, but as you said, it's one per position group.
No Puka.
Yeah.
No Puka.
Yeah.
Davante Adams got the assignment.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I, I, I think we know for probably obvious reasons right there, and the fact that Davante Adams is a true professional, who is the, the older wise man in the locker room, and, everybody looks up to him that way.
So I, I, like I can understand that.
But the, yeah, Kobe Turner's the defensive tackle in that room that got voted.
Probably because they voted and, and did this when Aaron Donald wasn't in the building yet.
So so they, he wasn't part of the voting process here.
But you know, we know he'll be a leader and have a lot of, a lot to say for that football team.
It really is just odd, and it'll be interesting to see if other teams follow suit.
It'll be a talking point in coaching meeting rooms, and players are gonna be thinking, "Well, hey, the Rams got 11 captains.
Why don't we?"
And you either, you either go the other way to demonstrate how ridiculous what the Rams did is, and I'm sorry, but it is, or you just say, "Fine, we gotta do the, we gotta do the same thing.
When in Rome.
They're doing 11, we gotta do 11."
We don't need guys pissing and moaning about, "Why don't we have more captains?"
They wanna wear that C, you know?
Yeah, I hear you.
I, I didn't, you know- Eventually that C, that C will be replaced with an Alaska Airlines logo.
Yeah.
It, it is cool to have the C on your there is something to that.
If I was the starting quarterback, I'd want a C on, on my, on my shoulders or-
