CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns named their three permanent captains for the 2019 season on Friday morning, and the players have chosen someone from every phase of the game: offense, defense and special teams.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield, linebacker Christian Kirksey and long snapper Charley Hughlett were named the Browns’ three captains for the 2019 season ahead of the opener against the Tennessee Titans at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland Sunday.
It is the first time either Mayfield or Hughlett have been selected as a captain in their NFL careers. Kirksey will serve as a captain for the defense for the third consecutive season.
After taking over the first-team offense in the second quarter of a Week 3 win over the New York Jets last season, Mayfield completed 310 of his 486 attempts (63.8 percent) for 3,725 yards and 27 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.
Under the direction of new Browns coach Freddie Kitchens, the interim offensive coordinator for the second half of the 2018 season, Mayfield completed 180 of his 263 attempts (68.4 percent) for 2,254 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
Although Mayfield does not get official credit for the victory over the Jets because he came on in relief of an injured Tyrod Taylor, the first-year quarterback guided the Browns to seven wins and the greatest single-year turnaround in franchise history.
“As soon as that third preseason game was over, a lot guys knew they would sit out that fourth week and some of the guys know that it is crunch time and the next time they put on those pads, it is going to be for real,” Mayfield said earlier in the week.
“You start to see that sense of urgency. Once the final cuts were made, you kind of see the type of team we are putting together. It is pretty exciting to see the energy we are bringing.”
Kirksey enters his sixth season with the Browns having played in 71 games with 52 starts. In those games, Kirksey registered 452 total tackles, including 282 solo stops, 170 assists and 11.5 sacks for 49.5 lost yards.
Also, Kirksey collected two interceptions, defended 17 passes, forced four fumbles and recovered three others.
Despite playing in only seven games during the 2018 season because of a hamstring injury, Kirksey set or matched career highs for interceptions and passes defended.
“I’m excited,” Kirksey said during the offseason program. “It’s an exciting time to be here. Out of my six years of being here, going into it, I feel very, very confident. I think the guys in this room feel very confident, but we’ve got to block out what people expect us to do and just do what we’ve got to do.”
Hughlett is in his fifth season with the Browns having played in all 64 of the team’s games since 2015.
This year, Hughlett will have a different kind of challenge than he has faced earlier in his career, as the veteran long snapper will be working with a first-year kicker (Austin Seibert) and rookie punter (Jamie Gillan), the latter of whom never held for place kicks prior to joining the Browns this spring.
“He is very good, a true pro,” Browns special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer said of Hughlett earlier this week.
“All the snappers in this league, there is only one of them on the team, so they are all very, very hard, but he is a hard worker. He is really good with these two young kids, and he will be a good leader for us in that room.”