Here is an interesting pre-Week 1 nugget we just unearthed.
The Giants named 10 team captains recently, the most of any squad in the NFL by ESNY’s count.
The Jets? They have three. Which is the smallest captain contingency in the league, according to our math.
What does it mean? Do the Giants have too many leaders? Do the Jets have too few? Is this somehow Pete Alonso’s fault? Dial 877-337-6666!
👉 Bet $50 with PointsBet, get a Giants or Jets jersey!
All kidding aside … The Jets are actually more of an outlier than the Giants are. While no other club has slapped the “C” on roughly 20% of its locker room (yet), there are three clubs — the Chargers, Eagles and Raiders — that have nine captains. And the Bills and Rams have eight.
There are three teams with four captains (the Bears, Steelers and Texans). And the Browns, Falcons and Jaguars have five. But half the league already has double the number of captains the Jets have. And there are still seven teams that have yet to set captains as of publishing time based on our research (the Buccaneers have said they won’t name captains anytime soon and the Ravens did not have captains last year).
Our take: If you have 10 captains, you have no captains. The Jets are doing it better than the Giants. But it also does not matter. These are professional athletes. They do not need someone telling them to hydrate, to re-rack their weights and to get to bed early. Have as many as you want. Back after this.
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.
