FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The best player is not always the captain, and the captain is not always the best player. Jonathan Casillas is a starting linebacker and a respected veteran, a solid performer, certainly not a star. He came to the Giants in 2015 and in only his second year with the team was voted in as the defensive team captain.
The election results were a credit to Casillas and also a reflection of the lack of star power on a defense that was truly terrible in 2015. There are plenty of worthy candidates this season, and when the players vote for the three team captains — one for offense, defense and special teams — Casillas hopes he again garners enough support to retain the role.
“It would be awesome,’’ Casillas said. “I mean, I was voted captain last year. I felt very accomplished by that, you know, with the locker room and first time being voted, with a lot of veteran guys I feel like I had to get that vote from. So, it would be great. I had it one time, it would be great to be one of the captains for the Giants, but I still consider myself a leader, I know a lot of guys do. So, if I’m not voted, I’ll still try to keep that leadership role.’’
Safety Landon Collins, a rising star after a breakthrough 2016 season, has spoken openly about wanting to one day be a team captain. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is the longest-tenured Giants defensive player and looks as if he is returning to the form he displayed before the fireworks accident that permanently damaged his right hand. JPP, though, is not a big “listen to me’’ guy.
Olivier Vernon is a Pro Bowl-caliber defensive end but probably too quiet to be a team captain. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins, in his second year with the team, is also hesitant to speak up, preferring to do his thing his way. The same goes for Dominique Rogers-Cromartie, who has been with the Giants since 2014. Damon “Snacks’’ Harrison arrived last year from the Jets and almost immediately became a strong locker room presence, respected for his selfless and dominating play plugging holes and stopping the run. He could be a defensive captain candidate.
Casillas, 30, knows retaining the captainship is no sure thing. As the Giants on defense have ascended, there are others who are in the running.
“Oh, for sure,’’ Casillas said. “On the defense alone, there’s like four, five, six guys that come to the top of my head. I can’t really be mad if it doesn’t happen that way because I know my role, and I think I play my role very well.’’
Casillas is one of the most accountable Giants players, often at his locker during the week to meet with the media and, unfailingly, available after games, in good times and bad. He is from Jersey City, N.J. and knows his way around the area, not merely geographically, but also in terms of what is expected of professional athletes in the New York/New Jersey landscape.
In many ways, Casillas is a self-made player, and captain. He was not drafted out of Wisconsin but somehow stuck on the Saints roster in 2009, arriving just in time to play a special teams role on a Super Bowl winner. Casillas spent time with the Buccaneers and then landed in New England in 2014, just in time to play a role on defense for the Super Bowl champion Patriots, earning his second championship ring.
So, nothing has been given to Casillas, which is why as the preseason wanes, he is sensitive to the plight of so many players on the roster bubble.
“There’s really no week in the NFL like this fourth preseason/beginning of opening week,’’ Casillas said. “There’s nothing really like that at all, besides this time of the year. The worst day in the NFL is coming up, which is the cut day, and this year is different. We’re going from 90 to 53, it used to be in increments. I don’t know if we’re going to be prepared for that.
“There’s always some stuff that goes on — cuts happen where the days going on and someone gets pulled out of a meeting — just stuff like that. You hate to see it, it’s part of the game, and I’m not looking forward to it, that sucks. At the end of the day, it is a business, and we do have to figure out the right 53 to play for the New York Giants.’’
Casillas, being a veteran, knows what the preseason is all about and realizes it is time for it to end. He admits thinking about the regular-season opener against the Cowboys for quite a while.
“We’ve been working … everything’s been building for September 10,’’ he said. “Whatever we’ve been doing come April, we’ve been building for September 10. All the preseason games were important, of course, but we’re all building for September 10. So, we’ve not just started with Dallas this week. We’ve been talking about Dallas — what they’re doing and how we think they’re going to attack us. So, we have been thinking about them a lot.’’