Miami Dolphins Name Two Former Illini As Team Captains

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Miami Dolphins will have a pair of former Illinois players are their captains for the upcoming 2020 season.

Ted Karras, who is projected to start at center, and Clayton Fejedelem were selected as two of the team’s eight captains following a vote by the players on the 53-man roster. Miami head coach Brian Flores announced the decision Monday, less than a week before the Dolphins open the 2020 regular season Sunday at the New England Patriots (Noon, CBS).

"It's player-voted," Flores told The Palm Beach Post. "I think that's the right way to do it – allow the players to select who they feel are the leaders on the team that they want to speak for them because those captains, we have a captains meeting every week and we have conversations about everything from the schedule to game plan to any issues surrounding the team."

From #Illini captains to NFL captains.

Congrats @_teddy_k and @ClayFejedelem on being voted captains for the @MiamiDolphins. pic.twitter.com/a7eRVi15wG
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) September 7, 2020

Karras, who won two Super Bowl rings after being drafted in the sixth round by the Patriots in 2016, signed a one-year contract worth $4 million with the Dolphins and will be snapping to Ryan Fitzpatrick in his return to Foxboro this Sunday. Flores named Fitzpatrick the starter for Week 1 Monday as he and rookie Tua Tagovailoa are the only active quarterbacks on Miami’s 53-player roster.

Karras has a vast football family heritage as he was the seventh member of his family to play football in the Big Ten Conference, including his great-uncle, Alex Karras, who won the Outland Trophy as a defensive tackle at Iowa and was named to the Pro Bowl four times in the National Football League with the Detroit Lions before going into acting, including a starring role in the 1980s sitcom "Webster". Karras’ grandfather, Ted Karras, played defensive tackle at Indiana and five of his nine seasons in the NFL with the Chicago Bears, helping Chicago win the world championship in 1963. Karras’ father, Ted Karras Jr. was a defensive tackle at Northwestern and played briefly with the Washington Redskins. He has previously served as college football head coach at the lower levels at Division II Walsh University, NAIA Marion University and Division III Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Karras had two great-uncles, Paul and Lou Karras, play at Iowa and Purdue respectively and an uncle, Tony Karras, play at Northwestern.

Karras had 43 career starts at right guard for Illinois from 2012-15 and was a two-time All-Big Ten selection by the league’s media contingent (third team in 2015 and honorable mention in 2014)

Fejedelem, a former walk-on transfer from NAIA St. Xavier in Chicago, started all 12 games at free safety in his final college season (2015) at Illinois. He finished the 2015 campaign with a team-best 140 tackles, most by an Illini player since 2006, and was an All-Big Ten second team selection by the media along with being named an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection by the league’s coaches. He was named a team Captain before the 2015 season and the team's Defensive Player of the Year selection in the postseason banquet.

Fejedelem spent his first four NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, totaling 117 tackles, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery, while playing mostly on special teams. Fejedelem was a special teams captain for the Bengals in 2019 and is expected to have a major role on special teams for Miami this season.