Philadelphia Eagles
When you’re coming off a Super Bowl win with your backup QB at the helm your offense is in pretty good shape. Carson Wentz should be back at the helm fairly early in the season if not to start the year. Nick Foles gives the team the ability not to rush Wentz back. Either way the QB position is in good hands and if Wentz returns and continues his career progression he’s going to become one of the best QBs in the league. With Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement and the ageless Darren Sproles at RB that position is fine too. A full off season and training camp for Ajayi can only make the running game better. Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor make a nice pair of WRs and the addition of Mike Wallace gives Wentz another weapon. TE Zach Ertz became a favorite target last season and even though the team lost Trey Burton to free agency they replaced him with a very promising rookie Dallas Goedert. The offensive line was one of the best in league last year and they should get a healthy Jason Peters back at LT. When he’s healthy he’s arguably the best LT in the game. Peters is 36 so he may not return to his previous form but either way the offensive line is an overall strength for the team.
The defense was impressive last season and while there are some changes to the personnel the unit will still be incredible. They are built around a deep and talented defensive line. DEs Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett and Chris Long are joined by Michael Bennett who replaces Vinny Curry. DTs Fletcher Cox and Tim Jernigan are joined by veteran Haloti Ngata. Ngata isn’t the dominant force he once was but as a third rotational tackle he should still be effective. LB Jordan Hicks is coming back from an injury and he really needs to stay healthy as the team finally jettisoned perennial trade candidate Mychal Kendricks. Nigel Bradham was the best LB on the team last year and he returns. They need someone to step up as the third LB, Nate Gerry is penciled in right now but that could easily change. At CB Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby are the starters but the team is hoping Sidney Jones can make a move after missing most of his rookie year with an injury. If he’s healthy Jones is a serious talent. The safety duo of Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod is one of the best in the league. Corey Graham returns as a versatile veteran for the secondary.
Doug Pederson won a Super Bowl in his second season as a head coach, pulling off a feat his mentor Andy Reid couldn’t quite do in his time as the Eagles head coach. Pederson had one of the best coaching staffs in the league last season and inevitably he lost some of his brain trust in the off season. Offensive coordinator Frank Reich took the Colts head coaching job and QB coach John DeFilippo took the offensive coordinator job with the Vikings. It’s now up to Mike Groh to run the offense and keep Carson Wentz’s career trajectory heading in the right direction. Groh was the wide receivers’ coach and he’ll be helped by Assistant Head Coach/Running backs Duce Staley, he was the other finalist for promotion to coordinator. Pederson was lucky enough to hold onto defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz which should help the defense continue its dominance. The Eagles are the class of the NFC East and it’s hard to bet against them in a tough NFC.
Dallas Cowboys
The NFC East is much like the AFC East in the fact that one team (in this case the Eagles) looks much better than the rest of the division. The Dallas offense is led by Dak Prescott. Prescott had a passer rating of 104.9 in his rookie year while last season it dipped to 86.6. The truth is he probably falls somewhere in between those numbers. The problem is that without Dez Bryant and Jason Witten Prescott is going to need to raise his game to lift those around him or the passing game is going to suffer. Bryant had lost a step but he was still a guy you had to account for and Witten was the most reliable pass catcher on the team for about 15 years. It’s not just that they lost those two it’s the fact they didn’t do much to replace them. WR Allen Hurns is nice possession receiver but he isn’t lighting up the scoreboard and Terrance Williams is a stretch as a good #2 WR, he certainly isn’t a #1. They are placing a lot of hope on rookie Michael Gallup to be a playmaker. That’s more than I can say for what they have at TE, which is a bunch of decent blockers. That leads to the good news for the offense, RB Ezekiel Elliott isn’t facing a six-game suspension this year and the offensive line looks to be really strong. Elliott is a work horse and he’ll get even more work this year. The offensive line is hoping for a healthy season from Tyron Smith and if he does miss any time they won’t have to trot out Chaz Green in his place. They signed Cameron Fleming as a free agent swing tackle and drafted Connor Williams to play LG, either one would make a better fill-in than Green did. The rest of the line returns intact with C Travis Frederick and RG Zack Martin two of the best at their respective positions and RT La’el Collins looking to improve on an uneven season. Collins has to prove himself or Fleming or Williams may come after his job.
The Cowboys defense was surprisingly good last season. DE Demarcus Lawrence finally broke through last year starting every game and getting 14.5 sacks. His reward was the franchise tag which he will play under this season. It’s probably smart of the Cowboys not to invest long-term in Lawrence until he proves he can do it for more than one season. The rest of the defensive line is solid if unspectacular. Tyrone Crawford and Maliek Collins aren’t household names but they get the job done. The team is getting Randy Gregory back after he missed multiple season with drug suspensions, counting on him is a risky proposition. One guy to keep on eye on if they use him right as a pass rushing specialist is rookie Dorance Armstrong, he’s a little undersized but he can be effective. At LB the team lost do-everything fill-in Anthony Hitchens and now they need Jaylon Smith’s talent to shine through, they need Sean Lee to stay healthy and they need rookie Leighton Vander Esch to live up to his potential quickly. I think Smith could be dominant but those other two hopes might be a bit much to ask. Lee has never played 16 games in his nine-year career and asking that at 32 years old is just crazy. Vander Esch is an outstanding athlete but he was a one-year starter at Boise St so it’s going to take him some time to adjust. The secondary has a new coach in Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs coach Kris Richard, formerly the defensive coordinator in Seattle. He has his work cut out for him. They are moving safety Byron Jones to CB because Richard likes big corners (ala Richard Sherman). That covers one hole in the secondary but creates another one at safety. They hope one of the other CBs Chidobe Awuzie, Jourdan Lewis or Anthony Brown can hold up on the other side. Jeff Heath and Xavier Woods are the uninspiring pair at safety for now. The constant rumor of the team trading for Seahawks safety Earl Thomas teases the Cowboys fans mercilessly.
The Cowboys lack the playmakers in the passing game on offense and the playmakers against the passing game on defense to compete with Philadelphia for the division. Jason Garrett has somehow survived some lackluster years in Dallas but the leash has to be getting pretty short at this point. The Cowboys might compete for a wild card spot and luckily for them both the Giants and Redskins have at least as many question marks as they do this season. I’m not sure how much more patience Jerry Jones will have for Garrett but Garrett seems to let Jerry have his way without much pushback so perhaps Jerry just likes it that way and will continue to employ Garrett for as long as he can.
New York Giants
The Giants have a pretty good group of skill position players. WRs Odell Beckham and Sterling Shepard are a good pair, Evan Engram is a playmaker at TE and RB Saquon Barkley is a major addition and he can change the look of the offense. The free agent signing of LT Nate Solder was a long overdue move to fix a continuing problem and the addition of LG Will Hernandez in the draft should solidify the left side of the line. The rest of the line is still pretty suspect but the team is hoping moving Erick Flowers to RT actually works but he might be broken beyond repair. This offense will come down to Eli Manning. He hasn’t been good for a while now but he’s not really a bad QB yet either. The question is whether this is the inevitable fall of an aging QB or was Ben McAdoo just that horrible of a choice as a coach. The offensive line may fail Manning again and we might not get a real answer. However, Pat Shurmur did a masterful job last year in Minnesota with a less than stellar offensive line and he made Case Keenum a legitimate starting QB in the NFL. If anyone can jump start Manning’s career Shurmur is probably the best bet.
The defense has talent at all three levels the only question is how will it be used. The Giants have been a 4-3 defense for quite some time but new defensive coordinator James Bettcher comes from Arizona and he will transition them to a 3-4 defense. Bettcher has always had good defenses for the Cardinals but any time there is a switch it can have some growing pains. The team will take its big-ticket free agent signing from last year DE Olivier Vernon and move him to OLB. That move doesn’t always go so well just ask the LA Rams how it worked moving Robert Quinn last season (here’s a hint, they traded him in the off season). The new three-man defensive line should be solid with Damon Harrison playing NT, a position he’s well-suited for, and rookie BJ Hill and second-year man Dalvin Tomlinson flanking him. The LB position got an upgrade with an off season trade for Alec Ogletree from the Rams. If Vernon can make the transition to OLB that takes care of one position. The other will be manned at the moment by Kareem Martin with veteran Connor Barwin waiting in the wings. The Giants haven’t been good at LB for a while so it’s interesting they are going to 4 LBs on the field. The strength of the defense should be in the secondary. Janoris Jenkins is a very good CB and if Eli Apple can get it together he has the physical tools to be a top-flight corner too. The real strength is S Landon Collins. He sets the tone and he’s one of the better safeties in the league.
This team needed a restart on the coaching staff and new head coach Pat Shurmur is as good of a fresh start as Manning, Beckham and the rest of the offense could have hoped for. I’m not certain new offensive coordinator Mike Shula is a perfect choice but this will be Shurmur’s offense not Shula’s. Defensive coordinator James Bettcher is a proven tactician and if the players buy into his system it should work. The new scheme might make certain players uncomfortable and they may not all fit in but Bettcher knows how to call a defense. No team this off season got a bigger upgrade with their new head coach than the Giants. Shurmur over McAdoo is a game changer.
Washington Redskins
The Redskins made arguably the biggest move of the off season by changing out their QB. After three pretty impressive seasons by Kirk Cousins the team let him walk in free agency after pulling off a trade for Alex Smith. Smith had a career year last year in Kansas City throwing for over 4000 yards but he’s 34 years old and the Chiefs traded him away to go with a guy with one career start. Smith has never been a franchise QB and I doubt at 34 he’s going to miraculously morph into one. The team took a major hit in the preseason when rookie RB Darrius Guice tore his ACL and will now miss the season. Guice was a steal in the second round of the draft after he fell for some strange reason. In what can only be called a panic move the Redskins signed Adrian Peterson hoping to catch lightning in a bottle one last time. Considering the other options are Rob Kelley, Samaje Perine and Chris Thompson I can’t say I blame them but I’m not jumping on the bandwagon either. Thompson might still be the most effective weapon in the backfield. The team needs Josh Doctson to take the next step in his development and become a #1 caliber WR. Jamison Crowder is a nice weapon as a slot receiver but he shouldn’t be the focal point of the passing game. Free agent Paul Richardson brings speed from Seattle but not a lot of production. The best weapon on offense is TE Jordan Reed but he has to be healthy and he’s never played an entire 16 game schedule in his career. LT Trent Williams is a star when he’s playing but he was injured a bit last season and they have no one to step into his place. RG Brandon Scherff and RT Morgan Moses make a solid right side. The LG and C spots are the question marks with a bunch of unproven guys fighting for the jobs.
The Redskins defense was pretty awful against the run last season and they are hoping a healthy season from last year’s rookie Jonathan Allen and this year’s top pick Da’Ron Payne will remedy a lot of that. Allen and Payne are former Alabama teammates and they bring serious talent to the front line. The team brought back all four LBs and they are hoping the healthy return of Mason Foster inside will also help against the run. ILB Zach Brown was the rock of the defense last year while OLBs Ryan Kerrigan and Preston Smith are the edge rushers. The team signed veteran Pernell McPhee to add depth and they are hoping for more out of second year man Ryan Anderson. The secondary is led by CB Josh Norman but he just turned 30 and his play slipped a bit last season. Quinton Dunbar is the other starter but they are hoping Fabian Moreau or one of the other young CBs can push him for the job. Montae Nicholson and DJ Swearinger are the starting safeties and while no one is going to mistake them for superstars they hold their own.
Jay Gruden has some how survived Dan Gilbert and is entering his fifth season as head coach of the Redskins, no one could have predicted that. This season will test him with Alex Smith taking over at QB. Smith is steady but he isn’t dynamic and neither is this offense unless Josh Doctson morphs into Julio Jones. This team can be solid if the offensive line gets straightened out inside and if the defense can stop anyone from running them over. In a division that has the Super Bowl Champs with Jay Ajayi behind a great line, the Cowboys offensive line blocking for Ezekiel Elliott and the Giants trotting out Saquon Barkley, run defense is going to be a major issue. I think they struggle a bit which is why I have them finishing fourth in the division.
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