When it comes to the NFC East, over the last few years, it has been the Eagles division, but the Cowboys were the last team in 2023 to win it before Philly went back to back the last two years.
Still, the Eagles roster has started to become less and less over this offseason and now with the trade of A.J. Brown, I really mean this, and you can already hear it everywhere else, the NFC East is wide open.
I think any four of these teams could win it, the Giants being the last on the list, but if they get healthy fast enough, they have a shot, but the Cowboys have the most ready roster today to win this division and I think they very well could.
A.J. Brown & NFC East
So all offseason we heard about A.J. Brown being traded and the drama that he caused. Well, he finally got dealt to the Pats for a first and a fourth round pick.
This makes what Jerry Jones got for George Pickens look awesome, only giving up a third round pick.
And why is it Dallas?
Let’s be honest with ourselves here, the Cowboys won 7 games last year and had the worst defense in football. They got better while the Eagles got worse. Philly still has a slight edge in is overall roster, but Dallas has the better offense, and it is not even close outside Barkley.
Let’s take a look at what Dallas did this offseason and, of course, after the Rams traded for Myles Garrett, it makes the Cowboys’ best offseason in 20 years look like nothing, but still.
They replaced Matt Eberflus with Christian Parker, got George Pickens to sign the tag and avoid the drama for the first time in Jerry Jones’ life.
Re-signed Javonte Williams, traded for Rashan Gary and re-tooling every level of the defense from both a starting and depth standpoint. Oh, and let’s not forget they got probably the 2nd or 3rd best defensive tackle in football in the middle of last year, Quinnen Williams.
When you look at Washington or the Giants, I still think they are further behind the Eagles and the Cowboys than you think. The other thing to note is that Dak Prescott is nearly flawless in the division and is 3-and-2 against Jalen Hurts, including the wild win a year ago.
I think Philly trading A.J. Brown will hinder their offense because, yes, they drafted Makai Lemon, but nobody is guarding him like Brown in his rookie season. Teams are going to make Jalen Hurts throw the football to beat them and lad the box on Barkley and honestly, teams don’t think Hurts can do that.
The Dallas defensive line got much better and is loaded with guys that can stop the run, so when you look at the backend, that is where the weakness still is, the secondary.
With Brown gone, the Eagles dip back into the Cowboys area and, honestly, after having the first repeat NFC East champ in over 20 years, I think the NFC East is wide open and even if Dallas does not win it, I don’t think the Eagles do.
@jasonrmcintyre and @markschlereth talk about the Cowboys’ outlook for this season
The last thing I will say is that Dallas is favorites in 11 of their 18 games, the Eagles are 13 in theirs, these teams are a lot closer than you think, and the Cowboys’ defense is good enough this year to be average, which is all they needed a year ago. I really do think Dallas will win 10 or 11 games, it is just a matter of will it be enough to win the division or will they make it in as a wild card?
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