It’s game week. The Dallas Cowboys will play a football game that matters on Sunday.
When the Cowboys hit the field for the first for-real matchup of 2018 they’ll be doing so without a ton of previous cornerstones. Gone are Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, and as of last weekend even Dan Bailey. This is a very different team in terms of recognizable faces.
Recognizable faces are more than the covers of programs, more often than not if you’re one of the household names you’re likely a point of leadership on the team. More recognition tends to mean more responsibility and responsibility is reserved for roles like captains.
We discussed potential captains back in May here at BTB, but even more has changed than had at that point. Of the six Cowboys captains last year (Dak Prescott, Jason Witten, Sean Lee, Tyrone Crawford, Orlando Scandrick, Dan Bailey) only three remain. There will be a lot of new C’s handed out compared to previous seasons.
Who could be the new Cowboys captains?
We have four preseason games to look at, but they didn’t tell us much as far as this goes.
Four Cowboys on the field for the coin toss: Dak Prescott, Sean Lee, Tyrone Crawford, and Dan Bailey. So no tipoff as to potential captain additions.
— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) August 18, 2018
It makes sense that Prescott, Lee, and Crawford will all return as captains, but who will join them? Back in May we speculated that it would come from the team’s leadership council. Here are those that remain on the team:
- Sean Lee
- Zack Martin
- Dak Prescott
- Tyrone Crawford
- Ezekiel Elliott
- Tyron Smith
- Travis Frederick
- DeMarcus Lawrence
- Jeff Heath
- Cole Beasley
- Byron Jones
Travis Frederick has been a team captain before (2016) and for what it’s worth he’s going to be on the 53-man roster for now. This means he’s eligible to be a captain, but are the Cowboys going to do that if he isn’t going to play to begin the season? Obviously this is a unique case.
It makes sense for DeMarcus Lawrence to be a team captain, but he isn’t the only defender that’s worthy considering Jaylon Smith exists. DLaw has been there and done that though whereas Jaylon is still a bit unproven. If I had to guess between the two I’d give the nod to Lawrence.
As far as offense goes if Travis Frederick isn’t the second captain next to Dak there’s potential for a bit of a dark horse in my opinion. We could see Tavon Austin be voted as a captain by his peers.
Before you scoff, just know that Tavon has already been leading the Cowboys. Consider that he is one of the older players in a relatively young and new room. This is an admitted wildcard.
With Dan Bailey gone we’ll need another special teams captain, and there are two that make sense. Chris Jones could inherit the role as the other elite specialist, but it’s possible that this particular captain’s patch goes to the GOAT - Jeff Heath.
There are those that scoff at Heath (how dare you disrespect him), but he is undoubtedly a supreme leader on the Cowboys. Remember that he was one of the three (Sean Lee and Tyrone Crawford) who wrote letters to Roger Goodell on Randy Gregory’s behalf. People have long said that Byron Jones could be a captain, but Jeff Heath feels like the next defensive back to take the title.
As it is game week we’ll likely learn who the Cowboys captains are soon. Who do you think they’ll be? There can only be six, even though last year the Patriots had seven.