Bucs players voted for their captains, and five were selected. For the defense three selections were linebackers: Lavonte David, Kwon Alexander, and Adarius Taylor (special teams). For the offense, just two were selected, and they were Mike Evans and Ali Marpet.
Jameis Winston was not voted a team captain for the first time since entering the league, and his suspension may have had something to do with it. However, with or without the C on his jersey, Jameis Winston still hopes he can lead his football team.
As mentioned in the Tampa Bay Times article, Bucs’ Jameis Winston is happy with captain assignments and says he is ‘going to continue to do my best to lead this team.’
Jameis Winston stated, “Ain’t no weight being taken off my shoulders at all. Just because you don’t have a C on your chest, it doesn’t mean you can’t lead. I’m happy that those two guys have a C on their chest, but I’m going to continue to do my best to lead this team.”
Winston also gave a nod of approval to the two offensive players selected as team captains.
“I think especially offensively, you have Mike Evans, who is one of the best players in the league. He’s a great leader in his room, and you have Ali Marpet, who is our NFLPA rep, and he’s a great leader in his room. So when you’ve got two great leaders like that on your side of the ball, they can easily, they can both go either way. I think that again, that’s a good situation that we’re in.”
He will still get his chance to be an additional captain each week as the Buccaneers will select a temporary captain each time. Winston was selected recently as a captain and attended the coin flip with the five team captains during the Browns game.
