You don’t have to think too hard to guess who the 8 players were that were named captains. You’re allowed 9, but Shanahan didn’t want to force another one based on the voting.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said the team has eight captains ahead of the 2024 regular season:
Nick Bosa
Fred Warner
Kyle Juszczyk
George Kittle
Christian McCaffrey
Brock Purdy
Deebo Samuel Jr.
Trent Williams
Shanahan said that you’re allowed to have nine, but he wanted to do right by the votes:
“I think we’ve always had six or seven. Seven and eight were like one vote off, and the ninth guy was like eight behind them. So, it was really obvious who those eight were, and the ninth was too far from them. I’d rather not have so many, but I’m not going to pick when the team votes it that close.”
Let the guessing games begin as to who the ninth player was who just missed the cut. As Shanahan said, this is more than usual. Some might be thinking that this is because it’s the last hoorah for this group.
You could have guessed who the eight were without trying too hard, but the ninth could be more obscure as Brandon Aiyuk was only in meetings this summer, and other players on the brink of stardom, such as Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw, spent the offseason rehabbing