Howson’s departure after eight years with Boro was confirmed yesterday, with the 37-year-old taking up a player-coach role with Leeds United after his previous contract on Teesside expired.
Howson was appointed as Boro’s club captain in 2021 and has skippered the side for each of the last four seasons.
His departure has created a vacancy, with Aidan Morris having won the captain’s armband at the start of last weekend’s friendly draw with Mansfield Town.
Darragh Lenihan and Dael Fry performed captaincy duties during Boro’s recent pre-season trip to Portugal, and rather than appointing a single club captain, Edwards intends to share the leadership duties around next season.
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A lack of on-field leaders was regularly cited as a problem under Michael Carrick last season, and Edwards wants to develop a group of senior figures who can help drive the club forward next term.
“We’ll shift it (the captaincy) around over the next couple of games,” said Edwards, whose side return to pre-season action when they take on Bradford City at Valley Parade this evening. In the last game [in Portugal], Dael and Darragh both had it. So, the plan is to shift it around.
“H (Hayden Hackney) is a leader as well. I’ve spoken to a few of those kind of boys and explained that’s how we’ll do it.
“For me, right now, I want to try and build more leadership across the whole group. I want to give them that responsibility and see how they respond when they’ve got the armband on.
“I thought Aidan responded really well to that. Don’t read too much into it, though, because we will be sharing that out over the next few weeks. I want to have 11 leaders out there each week ultimately.”
Boro are close to completing the signing of Alfie Jones from Hull City, with the centre-half having agreed the terms of a potential switch to the Riverside.