Eagles Name Their 8 Captains For The 2025-2026 Season

With the Eagles' home opener against the Cowboys, the team named its eight captains for the upcoming season. There is a solid mix of familiar faces wearing the C, along with 3 first-time captains.

Barkley, Baun, and Blankenship will all be 1st time captains. For Barkley and Baun, it is only their 2nd season on the team. They both exploded onto the scene in the 1st season with the team, both being arguably the best players at their position.

But Blankenship took a different route. This will be his 4th season with the Eagles after being signed as a UDFA out of Middle Tennessee. By year 2, he became their starting Safety. Last year, he grew into a young leader on the team, with Darius Slay even shouting him out as a future leader.

Clearly Slay knew what he was talking about, because less than a year later, Blankenship's teammates voted him as a captain.

The defense is interesting in general. The last few years saw an exodus of the former contingent of Eagles leaders on defense. Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox both retired. Slay was let go.

The oldest player on the defense is Zack Baun, and Blankenship and Jordan Davis are the longest tenured defenders with just 3 years of service in Midnight Green.

Now, Baun and Blankenship get to spearhead a new era for the Eagles' defense. Both guys understand the importance of the honor.

"It's always been my dream to become a captain, just regardless of where I'm at," Blankenship said in a statement from the Eagles. "I feel like that is one of the best things you can do as a teammate. It goes far beyond just having the 'C' on your chest, that's how I've always looked at it. With all my teammates trusting in me and voting for me, it just means the world."

"It's amazing," said Baun. "It is awesome. (It's) better than any achievement I've gotten to date. It means a lot because it's something that's voted on by my teammates."

The rest of the Captain's Room has a bit more experience under their belt. Hurts has been a leader since his 2nd season.

Johnson, now the longest-tenured player on the Eagles with Graham's retirement, is going into his 4th season. Elliott, the 2nd-longest tenured Eagle, will also be a captain for the 4th season. It will be Brown's 3rd season.

Mailata is the interesting story from the returning captains.. Not long ago, the Eagles LT didn't know how to strap up his helmet. But now he is one of the biggest voices in that locker room.

It was clear early in camp last season that Mailata stepped into the leadership void left behind by Jason Kelce. He made it his role to hold guys responsible early on, especially coming off the disappointing season in 2023. It seemed to work.

Now he has a different task. Instead of buckling down and bouncing back from a bad season, he will try and help the Birds keep momentum going coming off a Super Bowl.