With a couple of days to go before the start of the regular season, the Bucs announced their team captains for the upcoming 2025 season.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield, wide receiver Mike Evans, and left tackle Tristan Wirfs represent the offense. Then inside linebacker Lavonte David, nose tackle Vita Vea and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. were voted on the defensive side. There are no surprises with this group as they were also the same six captains that Tampa Bay had last season.
Your 2025 captains 🫡
Lavonte David, Mike Evans and Baker Mayfield will each don the gold “C” patch for being named a captain at least 5 times in their career 👏 pic.twitter.com/kafCO4yfSB
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 3, 2025
Bucs Keep Their Same Captains Together
The long tenured leaders are David and Evans. This will be the 12th consecutive season that the veteran inside linebacker wears the C on his uniform. He’s been a captain every year after the first two season of his career. Evans is not far behind him as this is his ninth year as team captain going into his 12th season.
Bucs WR Mike Evans Photo by: USA Today
Each player has displayed leadership, consistency and great performances to earn this honor again.
Following David and Evans, it’s Vea that has been the third longest tenured captain for the Bucs since Chris Godwin Jr. was last a captain in 2023. Vea is considered arguably the best defensive tackle in the league and he’s been a captain for now the fourth season in a row.
Baker Mayfield, was voted as captains for the third straight season. He has been named a team captain every single year that he’s been in Tampa Bay. Mayfield is coming off of a career year where he threw for 4,500 passing yards with 41 touchdowns and a second straight Pro Bowl.
The Bucs rewarded Mayfield by guaranteeing all the money on his contract for the 2026 season next year, which is the final year of his three-year contract. Given that everyone has returned for the Bucs on offense despite a couple of injuries that occurred, Mayfield is expected to have a big season.
Left tackle Tristan Wirfs and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. have been linked for a long time being in the same draft class. They’ve also been linked as being named team captains during the same year in 2023. So going into the 2025 season, they’ve each been team captains for three years.
Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Tampa Bay has look for great players and great people. They’ve found it with this captain group once again.