Bengals
Tampa Bay's players gathered Monday morning and voted on the six players who will wear the "C" patch this season. The team announced the results a few hours later: quarterback Baker Mayfield, tackle Tristan Wirfs, wide receiver Chris Godwin, nose tackle Vita Vea, linebacker Alex Anzalone and safety Antoine Winfield Jr.
For readers new to the NFL, a captain is not a ceremonial title alone. The role comes with a patch stitched onto the jersey, a gold star for every season served as captain, and real in-game duties: captains meet the officials and the opposing captains at midfield for the pregame coin toss, and they are the players a referee will approach first if a rules question needs sorting out on the field.
Four back, two new
Four of the six are returning captains. Mayfield, in his fourth season as Tampa Bay's starting quarterback, keeps the captaincy he has held since arriving in Tampa in 2023. Wirfs and Winfield also return, and Vea keeps his spot despite requesting a trade earlier in the offseason before instead signing a one year extension to stay in Tampa Bay.
Godwin and Anzalone are the two new names. Godwin's case is straightforward: he was already voted a captain once before, in 2023, alongside Mayfield, Wirfs, Vea and others. As BucsWorld covered in Chris Godwin is now the last man standing from the old Bucs core, Godwin is now the longest tenured player in the Tampa Bay locker room, and his teammates voting him back into a leadership role fits the mentor part he has already stepped into with the team's younger receivers.
A first year Buccaneer gets the "C"
Anzalone's selection is the more unusual story. He signed with Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent in March 2026 after five seasons with the Detroit Lions, where he was repeatedly voted a captain himself and often served as the "green dot" linebacker relaying defensive calls from the sideline. Being voted a captain by a new set of teammates before playing a single regular season down for that team is rare in the NFL. Locker rooms tend to reserve the honor for players who have earned trust over years, not months. Anzalone's case suggests he brought that trust with him, and BucsWorld's look at the roster moves before Cincinnati already flagged him as one of the veteran voices steadying a linebacker room that lost its long time leader this offseason.
Who is missing
Two familiar names are gone from the list because they are gone from the team. Lavonte David, a 12 time captain across his 14 seasons in Tampa Bay, announced his retirement earlier this year. Mike Evans, captain for nine straight seasons, signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent in March 2026 after 12 seasons in Tampa Bay.
Losing two captains who combined for 21 seasons of that role in one offseason could have left a leadership gap. Instead, the vote suggests the locker room simply reshuffled around the players still there and the ones who proved, quickly, that they belonged among them. Four holdovers, one veteran leader who found the same trust in a new building, and a receiver stepping into the void left by his old running mate: that is as clean a summary of where this Tampa Bay team stands, on and off the field, as the roster itself provides. Cincinnati, on Sunday, is the first game these six will lead.
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