The Los Angeles Rams held their annual vote on team captains last week, selecting five players for the honor this season.
Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Rob Havenstein are among the returning captains, while Kobie Turner and Quentin Lake will carry the responsibility for the first time in their careers.
“Those five were well-regarded in terms of the votes from their peers. There was a gap between those five and everybody else. There were a lot of guys that got recognition that were certainly well-deserving of that,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said of the captains.
Turner discussed being selected and said it is one of the greatest honors in his career, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“It sounds really good to me,” a smiling Turner said of his newest title following Thursday’s practice. “That’s always been one of the biggest honors, to be able to have the people who are in there seeing the work that you put in on a day-to-day basis, and have them make the decision that I’m somebody who’s worthy of leading this team. So it’s really one of the greatest honors I could ever have. And I’m just so grateful for this team to allow me to build into this role, and I’m excited to take it and lead this defense, lead this team to a really good year.”
Turner’s responsibilities as captain will include play-by-play communication and being a bridge between his coaches and teammates:
“And that’s something that’s already been building up throughout this offseason, being able to talk with coach McVay, with (defensive line coach/run game coordinator) coach Giff (Smith), with (defensive coordinator) coach (Chris) Shula, and to really just be a voice of our guys, and to really lead them and kind of mold the type of energy, the type of team that we want to be. So it’s a really huge responsibility, and I’m super excited to carry that.”
Turner has been a natural leader for the Rams since being selected by the franchise in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
The 25-year-old will nevertheless have some big shoes to fill with Aaron Donald retiring and Ernest Jones being traded to the Tennessee Titans.
Turner should have a seamless transition after getting to learn from Donald and seeing how he carried himself around the team last season.
Aaron Donald shuts down possibility of returning to Rams
Although he has stepped away from the game, Aaron Donald is still just 33 years old and could easily make a comeback if he wanted to. Some around the league have speculated that he could return to the Rams for a playoff run this year, similar to Eric Weddle during the 2021 season.
However, Donald reiterated that he has no plans to unretire during a recent appearance on the “25/10Show” that is hosted by former Philadelphia Eagles teammates LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson.
