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The Cleveland Browns named their team captains for the 2017 season on Monday, with five earning the honors as voted on my their teammates. Three defensive players are among those selected, while left tackle Joe Thomas is the only representative from Cleveland’s offense. Punter Britton Colquitt was named the captain of the Browns’ special teams unit.
Our captains for the 2017 season as voted by our players: Joe Thomas, Christian Kirksey, Jamie Collins, Jamar Taylor and Britton Colquitt.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 4, 2017
The players chosen are Thomas, Colquitt, linebackers Christian Kirksey and Jamie Collins and cornerback Jamar Taylor. Kirksey has quickly become a leader and top performer on defense since being drafted by the Browns in 2014 and was made a full-time starter a season ago. Collins, who entered the league in 2013, earned the nod from his Browns compatriots despite only arriving in Cleveland midway through the 2016 season. Taylor, also a relative newcomer having joined the Browns a season ago, will serve as captain for the team’s defensive backs.
Head coach Hue Jackson made the announcement on Monday but made it clear that this was about the players casting votes, saying to the assembled media that, “[t]his is not something the coaches do—the team makes these decisions [on captains]. I make sure that I pass out the papers, but they decide who the captains are... I think that is a tremendous honor for those guys to be voted captains by their teammates.”
A year ago, the Browns’ captains were linebacker Demario Davis, quarterback Robert Griffin III, cornerback Joe Haden and linebacker and special-teamer Tank Carder, along with Thomas. Now Thomas is the only one of the Browns’ 2016 captains still on the squad.
Another member of the Browns received an honor of his own on Tuesday, with 2017 No. 1 overall draft pick Myles Garrett being voted the winner of the Maurice Bassett award, which is given to the team’s most outstanding rookie performer in training camp, as voted on by the local media. In 2016, defensive end Carl Nassib won the Bassett award, with defensive tackle Danny Shelton receiving it in 2015. Newly-crowned captain Kirksey was the team’s Bassett award winner in 2014.