Eberflus officially announces team captains for 2024 season |
CHICAGO—The Chicago Bears officially announced their eight-team captains for the 2024 season: cornerback Jaylon Johnson, wide receiver DJ Moore, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, safety Kevin Byard, linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards, and tight ends Cole Kmet and Marcedes Lewis.
Head coach Matt Eberflus has always let the players vote on captains, but he feels these eight players each have a strong leadership presence in the locker room. “I really feel strong about those guys and they know the first rule of leadership is leading themselves and being the example we want to see in terms of work ethic, in terms of leadership, in terms of standing up when you have to speak,” Eberflus said. “But, mostly lead by your actions, how you do things and the standards we hold each other to is so important and our best players got to show that every single day and they got to bring it. So, those guys do that and I’m excited about those guys being a big part of our leadership.” It is normal for the starting quarterback to be named one of the team captains. However, when that quarterback is a rookie, typically they are not named a team captain. Nonetheless, Chicago’s locker room elected Williams as one of their team captains, an honor Eberflus says Williams deserves and a positive sign of how much of a leader he has already become. “I haven’t had that before. But, again, I put it to a vote. I had it with offense and defense and had the guys rank those guys and he came out really high. So, all those guys did. That’s what’s great about it and we had other guys that had great votes too, just not enough to get into that captain’s vote. But, that’s a really good sign that he’s got leadership throughout the entire team,” Eberflus said. “He’s worked his tail off. He’s preparing. He’s got great passion in the practice and in the games and that’ll all come to him naturally.” During Eberflus’s first two seasons as the head coach, there was not nearly as much excitement around the team as there is going into this season as the rebuilding process in Chicago finally appears to be complete with elite playmakers like the eight team captains, as well as receiver Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze, other secondary players like cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and Kyler Gordon and even an outstanding punter in rookie Tory Taylor. Finding talented players who also gel together is often a hurdle when rebuilding teams. However, Eberflus has said throughout camp and still maintains that the team is coming together faster than he has previously seen. Training camp offered ample insight for fans to see for themselves how all of Chicago's talent is coming together. “I can feel this team coming together faster just because of the maturity of it and some of it is because … we’ve been around each other for three years and that certainly helps that part of it,” Eberflus said. “I would say the competition that we’ve had up to this point during training camp. You can feel that. That’s real, going against each other and our (offensive) players going against defensive players. That competition is real and the guys did a really good job of competing and really sharpening each other during that time and we’re excited about this competition coming up.” After a whole offseason of hype and hope surrounding Chicago, their season opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sun. Sept. 8 (Noon / FOX) will be the first chance to see everyone in a regular season game. Even though the Titans may be short their top wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, after suffering a knee injury during practice, this game will provide a good test of whether Williams and the Bears are truly living up to the hype.
