The NFC East hasn’t had a repeat champion since the Eagles in 2003-04.
Once the toughest, and most successful division in football, the east has become a division filled with organizational malpractice and inept play.
As the 2022-23 looms closer, each of the four teams in the NFC East has looked to improve on their previous season’s win total. A new coach, new stars, and offseason controversies have filled the news cycle.
The NFC East has once again shown that the results on the field may not be showing, but it’s still the most talked about the division in football.
Here’s a look at what is happening around the winningest division in football history.
New York Giants – Slowly Changing the Culture
It’s hard to think that anyone could be as bad as Joe Judge over the last two years so Brian Daboll doesn’t have to do much to show the Giants are better off.
Training camp alone has shown the inconsistencies that come with the new coaching staff. While questions surround Daniel Jones and his ability, he has also struggled in different practices while continuing to show a propensity to turn the football over.
The offensive line though is still a work in progress. While the Giants have Andrew Thomas and now Evan Neal as their stalwart tackle combination, the interior group has left much to be desired in practice. Interior pressure on a quarterback is always something that can curtail any promising start.
With Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence dominating in camp, it’s no wonder what could happen when the rest of the NFC East exploits that matchup.
Dallas Cowboys – Dak and Zeke or Bust
Already through training camp, we have seen Dak Prescott be criticized for holding onto the ball too long and taking multiple sacks.
Will that continue during the regular season? Probably not. But it is important to remember that the Cowboys traded away their number one receiver in Amari Cooper and don’t have Michael Gallup for at least part of the start of the season. It also doesn’t help that the offensive line has been extremely inconsistent through camp.
These problems in Dallas could go away very quickly, or they could be an alarming sign of things to come.
Defensively, Dallas is a mess of contradictions. Micah Parsons has shown he can be a top-five player in football, but Trevon Diggs, the NFL’s interception leader has already gone viral for being beaten terribly by undrafted wideouts in 1v1 drills.
Dallas is arguably the one team who has gotten worse over the course of the off-season in the NFC East, but they are still the defending division champs and need to be feared in some aspects.
Philadelphia Eagles – Media Darling in the NFC East
There hasn’t been a team that has gotten more favorable reviews from their off-season than the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles added AJ Brown, Haason Reddick, Jordan Davis and a plethora of other stars to a team that had made a playoff appearance in 2021. With Jason Kelce out for most of pre-season, the team will need to rely on second-round rookie Cam Jurgens to show out in the next month for when Kelce eventually retires as well.
But make no mistake, the future of the Eagles hinges on Jalen Hurts. Hurts has been ok through the start of training camp with some analysts touting his improved mechanics. He hasn’t stood out as someone who looks ready to break out though.
Questions surrounding the quarterback will only increase if the Eagles start slow, or perform poorly in the preseason game against the Jets on Friday.
Washington Commanders – The NFC East Pariah
In just the last week alone, the Commanders have shown why most of the league does not take them seriously.
On Tuesday the team fired their defensive line coach not even three full weeks into camp. Why is that significant? Because the team was already being taught one particular way that head coach Ron Rivera clearly didn’t like. Washington’s strength is the defensive line, but it’s gotten older in recent years and hasn’t been nearly as consistent as the team would like.
Then there is the quarterback. Carson Wentz is back in the NFC East and has been sporadic in camp according to reports.
With a competent skill group led by Terry McLaurin, it would be surprising if Wentz couldn’t lead Washington to a better record than last season, but the Commander offensive line is probably the worst it has been in years.
Of course, there is also the owner who has been subpoenaed by Congress for his role in sexual misconduct allegations throughout the organization’s history.
It’s tough to see how Washington’s season will go just by all of this.
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