When the Seahawks open the season Wednesday night against the Patriots, quarterback Sam Darnold will be one of their captains. But it won’t be like that every week.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald believes in selecting new captains for each game, rather than the season-long captains with a ‘C’ on their jersey that most teams use. That was Macdonald’s approach during his first two seasons as the Seahawks’ coach, and it will continue to be his approach this year.
In addition to Darnold, the Seahawks captains against the Patriots will be linebacker Ernest Jones IV, linebacker Brady Russell and defensive tackle Leonard Williams.
Macdonald said at the start of the 2024 season, his first as a head coach, that he believes in making team captain a weekly recognition rather than a season-long responsibility.
“It’s a combination of guys who are doing a great job, guys who are trying to step up and give an opportunity to have a voice with the rest of the team, guys you want to understand that they deserve an opportunity to do those things,” Macdonald said. “So that’s really the thinking behind it. It’s very simple that simple. The boys know who the leaders are. You don’t need the title to be a team leader. But it’s important to build everyone else up. . . . There is nothing formal about it. It’s more of a familiarity kind of thing. Just, ‘Hey, shout out to these guys who are doing it the right way, playing the right way, preparing the right way.'”
As the starting quarterback, Darnold was an obvious choice for Week 1. He’ll be the team’s leader all year and doesn’t need the captain’s ‘C’ to show for it.