The Green Bay Packers have named their five season-long captains for the 2026 NFL campaign, and one selection stands out more than the rest.
Linebacker Zaire Franklin, acquired from the Indianapolis Colts only this past March, will wear the C in his first year with the franchise.
That is unusual in Green Bay. Most captains are players who have already spent years inside the building. Franklin arrived in a trade that sent defensive tackle Colby Wooden the other way and had never taken a snap in a Packers uniform when the vote was taken.
What he did bring was a résumé as a communicator and a proven locker-room voice. He had been a team captain in Indianapolis for six straight seasons, from 2020 through 2025, and he has worn the green-dot helmet since 2022, calling the defense from the middle of the field.
Head coach Matt LaFleur has described him as an alpha who holds himself and those around him to a high standard. That reputation traveled with him. Franklin, a seventh-round pick out of Syracuse in 2018, developed from a special-teams regular into one of the league’s most productive off-ball linebackers.
He posted more than 100 combined tackles in each of the last four seasons, led the NFL with 173 in 2024, and earned second-team All-Pro honors that year. He followed with 125 tackles in 2025. Those numbers, plus his durability, made him a logical replacement after Quay Walker left in free agency.
The rest of the captain group is familiar. Quarterback Jordan Love and tight end Tucker Kraft will represent the offense. Safety Xavier McKinney joins Franklin on defense.
Linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, long one of the team’s most reliable special-teams players, will again speak for that unit. Love, Kraft, McKinney, and McDuffie were all captains a year ago.
Edge rusher Micah Parsons, the defense’s most talented player, was not included; he begins the season on the physically unable to perform list after a late-2025 ACL tear.
Former captains Rashan Gary and Walker are no longer on the roster, and running back Josh Jacobs is on the commissioner’s exempt list.
Franklin’s elevation still reads as a statement. Green Bay did not wait to see how he would fit on Sundays before handing him a formal leadership role.
The organization is betting that the same presence that made him a six-time captain in Indianapolis will take hold immediately in a new locker room, under a new defensive coordinator in Jonathan Gannon, a coach who first worked with Franklin years ago in Indy. For a first-year Packer, that is a fast track.
It also suggests the team already sees him as the quarterback of the defense as it opens the season on the road against Minnesota.
