After having arguably one of the best NFL offseasons, there has been chatter around the Philadelphia Eagles being crowned already as the NFC East Champs.
While it’s still way-too-early to crown them, NBC Sportswriter Peter King added more “fuel to the fire” on Sunday after releasing his annual NFL Power Rankings, which had the Eagles at No.9 and the Cowboys at No.15.
King said, “I picked the Eagles ahead of Dallas because the Eagles got significantly better this offseason and Dallas worse, with the subtraction of two key contributors (Amari Cooper and Randy Gregory) and the addition of none.”
While King is right about the Eagles getting significantly better (given they added Pro Bowl WR A.J. Brown and made other moves through the Draft and free agency), the one thing he got wrong is about the Cowboys not adding anyone.
Despite losing Cooper and Gregory, the Cowboys were able to land two WRs (James Washington & Jalen Tolbert) and two DEs (Dante Fowler Jr. & Sam “De” Williams), who can arguably replace their production.
Starting with wideout, I understand that the loss of an elite WR like Cooper would hurt any team, but because of the upside of WR CeeDee Lamb, he can seamlessly fill Cooper’s voided role. Additionally, when Gallup comes back, he and Lamb will form a dangerous duo that will have fans slowly forget about Coop.
Factor in Washington and Tolbert, who bring speed to the group- we could be having a lot of fun this season.
Shifting to DEs, while Gregory did make splash plays and put up solid production during his time in Dallas- his void is replaceable. As good as he was, losing Gregory doesn’t signal to me that you lost one of the top DEs in the league.
With Fowler Jr., Williams, and Dorance Amstrong in the fold, expect the trio to double or triple his production combined. (Watch out for an Armstrong breakout this season.)
Oh, and for the die-hard Eagles fans who keep pointing out because they added Brown, DT Jordan Davis, LBs Haason Reddick & Nakobe Dean, and CB James Bradberry that Dallas should be scared. My message: nothing is guaranteed to pan out.
Brown is a talented WR, but you have to be concerned with his durability given he’s racked up six injuries already in his first three years. Does he spend time in and out of your lineup?
Both Davis and Dean are rookies, and relying on them right away could backfire. Do you trust them over Javon Hargrave, Fletcher Cox, and T.J. Edwards?
Reddick, who’s played three career games versus the Cowboys, has averaged 2.3 tackles and 0.7 sacks. What changes? Does he even scare Dak and the Guys?
And lastly, for the Bradberry hype, here you go:
CeeDee Lamb beats James Bradberry for 49 yard TD✭✭✭#DallasCowboys #CowboysNation #CowboysFam pic.twitter.com/CO79mKRKKU
— Sohe (@SoheCoop) December 16, 2021
Furthermore, I admit the gap was closed a bit between the Eagles and Cowboys talent-wise, but fans and King forget that the Cowboys have the best QB in the division. Given it’s a QB-driven league, I don’t see the Cowboys relinquishing their NFC East crown this year, and I’m SELLING on them being worried.
Expect some exciting games between the two, but Dallas will still remain on top.
I’m getting tired of reporters desperately trying to fill us with pipe dream potential. Every year it’s the same. “This player is set up to have a breakout year”, or “don’t sleep on this underrated player”. Then at the end of the year, they look for excuses as to why they again failed.
The Cowboys really didn’t do anything to get better. They always add patch up guys they can get cheap. Every year we hope for the best, but the fan base is now sour on all this rhetoric
Hey Carlton, I appreciate the comment. While I’m not the type to fill fans with “pipe dream potential”, the player I wrote about (Armstrong) does a chance to break out. Additionally, with Lamb as the number one, and adding Washington and Tolbert they should be fine.
I fully understand your frustration about the Cowboys feeling like the same and while I say “It’s our Year!”, I’m more on the side that they need take it game by game, and it’s anyones game. Yes I get you could say the Cowboys have no shot at going far and because of recency bias, the franchise is going to do the same ole’ bull. However, with the losses of Coop and Gregory, the team should be fine. RG was a solid player, but the potential of Sam Will, Fowler Jr., and Armstrong should easily replace RG. And if they seek to add more options (there’s always the chance and I know it’s “delusional or doubtful they do you could say”, you can’t rule that out). Replacing Cooper may seem hard at first, but Lamb has all the tools to do so. Coming out of OU, he was rated as one of the most talented WRs and had shades of D-Hop people said. Lamb is going to be the alpha and should thrive. While it’s more of a wait-and-see approach from me, any reporter and fans—just be optimistic about what’s going to come. Going into a season with already doubts just ruins the game entirely, but the whole reason behind this article was to debate whether the Eagles moves should spell trouble for the Boys.
Worry bout what? They dont have a good QB!
Agree with Perry, Hurts is an average, at best, QB. 48.5 QBR, ranking 19th, last year is obviously not good. Other 2020 drafted QBs included J Herbert at 65.6, J Burrow at 54.3, even Tua at 49.7 were incrementally better. And as the most important player on the field, that can limit the team’s performance level overall.
That said, on paper, the Eagles did get better this offseason with the draft and aforementioned trade, etc. But can that overall improvement make up for their QB’s deficiency?
BTW, if the Philly “rookies’ can “backfire”, than so can DC’s rookies filling in for their losses.
I am not so worried about the Eagles when they are on offense, but they added some significant pieces on defense. Jordan Davis….unless his conditioning becomes a problem…could be a problem for years. Dean is playmaker and a leader and they picked up a good corner in a salary cap move from the Giants. The NFC East will not be a cale walk like last year.
Agree Todd, Davis has the potential to be a “big” problem. Dean may be a huge steal for them in the 3rd round.
Our 1st rounder, T Smith better be the real deal. Thought it was a reach. He was a late riser, which gives pause. FO claims he was their top rated Guard?
They better be worried about everyone. Nothing they showed last season or this off season tells me they are in a position where they can look down on anybody they face this season.
Philly did get better, but I don’t agree with king when he said we got worse…. If anything we’re pretty much the same!! In my opinion, the only star player we lost was Cooper!! Gregory wasn’t even that good, but a lot of people and reporters are making it sound like we lost some big time player!! If Armstrong can do what he did last season, he’ll make up for the sacks Gregory had, and with Fowler under Quinn as DC, I think he’ll be better than Armstrong and he’ll make up for Gregory’s production plus some, and Williams has the potential to be a lot better than Gregory, but with Armstrong and Fowler playing for us, we don’t need 6 Williams to be that guy yet, so he can take his time!! The only thing we have to worry about is replacing Cooper, and I think Ceedee can do that, we just need our number 2 and number 3 receivers to be good this season!! And as far as Tyler Smith goes, we just need him to be as good as Connor Williams in his rookie year and our line will hold up enough for Dak to make plays, but I think Tyler Smith will be better than Williams, so our line should be at least a little bit better!! So again, I don’t think we got worse…. At the very worst, we stayed the same!! So I’m not worried about the eagles!! They’ll be a lot better this season, but I don’t think they’ll be better than us!!