Cowboys strip their best player of Captain's C, announce 2026 crew

The Dallas Cowboys had a unique approach to their game-day captains under former head coach Mike McCarthy. Each week, the team would designate new captains, leading to many players holding the honor, but losing the weekly accountability from having season-long designations. Brian Schottenheimer changed that to a more traditional structure in his first season, naming two captains from each unit.

Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb were captains for the offense, Donovan Wilson and Osa Odighizuwa were captains for the defense, and Brandon Aubrey and CJ Goodwin wore the "C" for the special teams unit. Three of those players, Wilson, Odighizuwa and Goodwin, are no longer on the team, opening up the opportunity for new names to join the fold. But it's not the names which are added that are noteworthy; it's a name that's been removed.

Prescott is the sole designation for the offense, meaning that after sporting the C for all of 2025, Lamb is no longer one of the offense's captains. Whether or not this is a significant development is in the eyes of the beholder, but with the front office continuously chirping about their inability to pay top dollar for both Lamb and wideout George Pickens beyond this season, it's an interesting change.

To be clear, this isn't a coach's decision; the players vote on the captains each year.

Lamb, who was recently named the NFC East's best player by ESPN , has two years remaining on his contract beyond this one, while Pickens is playing on the franchise tag for 2026.

Meanwhile, the team has kept Aubrey as the special teams captain, and named the starting defensive interior as co-captains for the defense. Quinnen Williams, acquired in a deadline trade last year, received a hefty extension this year, cementing his role as the centerpiece of the defense moving forward. He's joined in the captain's room by Kenny Clark, the defense's elder statesman prior to the late-camp signing of Von Miller.

In a nutshell, the team voted for the players with the biggest paychecks and most responsibility from each unit, along with the returning player with the most skins on the wall.