Coach Matthew Knights says the Bombers are yet to decide on who will succeed the retired Matthew Lloyd, but will make their choice before the players head off on their Christmas holidays.
"All I will say is by the time we leave on the 23rd of December, we will have a new captain of the Essendon Football Club," he said.
"We haven't appointed a captain yet. We're doing all our diligence and our research and involving a lot of different people across the organisation, as we should.
"We're all really pumped about appointing someone new but we're no closer at this stage."
Knights said last month there wasn't a front runner for the position, despite speculation Jobe Watson was set to step into the role.
On Friday, he said the field had slightly narrowed.
"It's open to about six or seven players, in reality, that could be captain of the club," he said.
"They've all got amazing but different strengths. They're different age brackets too.
"I'm not going to put a limitation on anyone because we've got some great people -Andrew Welsh, Mark McVeigh, David Hille.
"Even though David missed a lot of this year, he was incredible the year before and he's progressing so wonderfully well at the moment and is running up to 80 or 90 per cent.
"I don't think there is any favourite at this stage. We'll let the people that need to vote on it and they'll declare their captain."
Last month, Knights said he was comfortable with the club taking its time in making the significant appointment of its 38th official skipper.
"To be appointed captain of the Essendon Football Club when you've got Matthew Lloyd, James Hird, Terry Daniher, Gary O'Donnell and the like … you don't make the decision lightly," he said.
"We really want to go through all the processes. The captaincy would then need to be ratified by the board and through the constitution, so it's a huge decision."
The Bombers will travel to Coffs Harbour for the second consecutive year on December 14 for a four-day training camp.
