Dallas Cowboys
Dak Prescott seems to be the only top QB not getting a long-term deal this off season as Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson signed megadeals to stay with their respective clubs. Prescott is on a one-year franchise tag and it should be a hell of a year. The team still has Ezekiel Elliott, who should be one of the top RBs in the NFL again. The offensive line is hoping for a healthy year out of Tyron Smith at LT and Connor Williams at LG while Joe Looney takes over at C for the retired Travis Frederick. RG Zach Martin is one of the best in the game and they will have to hold together for a little while as RT La’el Collins comes back from an injury. The line can be a huge strength if healthy, if not the depth isn’t optimal. The team overlooked some bigger issues in the first-round of the draft to take WR CeeDee Lamb who was simply too valuable to pass up. Lamb will team with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup to give Prescott one of the most dangerous WR groups in the league. TE Blake Jarwin has some potential but he hasn’t completely developed yet so the team needs him to take that next step. The offense will now be under the direction of new head coach Mike McCarthy and the returning offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Moore did a nice job with this unit last year and adding McCarthy’s background should only make them better.
The defense got a makeover on the coaching staff as Mike Nolan comes in to fix things on that side of the ball. The team got stronger up front as they added free agent Everson Griffin to pair with Demarcus Lawrence at DE and Dontari Poe comes in to strengthen the middle at DT. They had added Gerald McCoy at DT also but he ended up with a season-ending injury and was bought out. They are also trying Randy Gregory once again as he returns from another suspension and they brought in Aldon Smith who has been out of the league for quite a while. Clearly, they are trying anything to help at DE. At LB they have a great young pair in Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith but they don’t have much beyond those two. They brought back Sean Lee but he’s already on IR to start the year which was predictable. You will see this team use a two LB set quite often this season. In the secondary they hope Trevon Diggs can become a top CB because they lost Byron Jones in free agency and they don’t have anyone else to replace him. Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis are solid players but they aren’t elite CBs. The team had signed Ha Ha Clinton-Dix at safety but he couldn’t win a starting job so they already cut him. Xavier Woods and Darian Thompson are slated to start if Woods is healthy enough to begin the year. There is a lot of speculation about the team signing Earl Thomas but so far speculation is all it is.
The Cowboys have one of the most talented offenses in the NFL and that should give them a leg up in this division but they need the defense to be better. They lost Robert Quinn at DE and while Everson Griffin probably won’t make up all of Quinn’s production, they should be better overall up front with the addition of Poe and rookie Neville Gallimore. Smith and Vander Esch are great but the secondary leaves a lot to be desired unless Trevon Diggs turns out to be amazing. I see the Cowboys winning the division in a close race with Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles offense has a lot of good players and they should be good, but we will wait and see. They built this team and this franchise around QB Carson Wentz and they have given him a good RB with 2020 breakout candidate Miles Sanders and a fantastic TE duo Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert. Up front they have veterans Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson solidified at C and RT respectively. Andre Dillard was supposed to take over at LT until he suffered a season-ending injury in camp. Long-time starting LT Jason Peters had returned to fill in for the injured Brandon Brooks at RG but just before the season he decided to agree to move back to LT. That’s good news because if the team had to line up Matt Pryor or someone else on the roster at LT it may have been a bloodbath for Wentz. Where the team struggles is at WR. Alshon Jeffery returns but he’s just not the consistent playmaker the team needs. DeSean Jackson is back but he doesn’t stay healthy. They drafted Jalen Reagor and he’s a talented guy but he’s injured to start the year too and that might set his development back. The team really needs one of their young guys like Reagor, John Hightower or JJ Arcega-Whiteside to step up. Or really a couple of those guys.
The Eagles defense is stacked with guys in the prime of their careers, whether its just at the start of their prime (Derek Barnett, Avonte Maddox, Jalen Mills, etc.) or guys coming to the end of their prime (Fletcher Cox, Darius Slay, Rodney McLeod). DE Brandon Graham is the old man of the group at 32 but he’s still effective and they hope Barnett can breakout opposite him. Fletcher Cox has a been a perennial Pro Bowler for a while and he has Javon Hargrave and Malik Jackson forming a solid rotational trio with him inside. The team isn’t overly talented at LB with Nate Gerry, TJ Edwards and Duke Riley slated to start but they aren’t bad. The team traded for Darius Slay to solve the biggest problem they have had for a number of years, no #1 CB. Slay is a big upgrade for them and I’m interested to see what he can do when he has more talent around him, he was a one-man show for a long time in Detroit. Avonte Maddox is a solid #2 guy and Nickell Robey-Coleman is a good nickelback. Jalen Mills is moving to safety and he should pair nicely with McLeod.
I think the Eagles can give the Cowboys a run but I worry about the offense with a compromised WR corps. There will be a lot of pressure on Wentz and the running game to keep them in games and the Cowboys will be tough. The Cowboys upgraded their coaching staff but I’m not sure what the Eagles have with their new shared offensive coordinator position. Makes me a little nervous.
New York Giants
It’s a pick ‘em when it comes to the difference between New York and Washington in the NFC East standings. In this case I’m picking the team with the better offensive line. That’s a change of pace for the Giants as the offensive line hasn’t been their strength. It’s not exactly a strength this year either but it’s considerably better than Washington’s. LT Nate Solder opted out for the year but that just moves up Andrew Thomas’ ascension to the LT job to now instead of later. It does mean the team is looking at starting two rookie OTs as Matt Peart is set to start at RT. That would be a bad thing except this team has been bad at OT before and at least now they have some talent to work with. LG Will Hernandez is good and RG Kevin Zeitler is a steady veteran. If they get anything at center, they should be fine. That will make things easier on QB Daniel Jones and that’s what they need, make it easy on him. RB Saquon Barkley is a star who needs to stay healthy and that would be easier behind a better line. TE Evan Engram also has the injury bug but he is also a top talent when on the field. WR Sterling Shepard is the third member of the Giants that needs to kick the injury habit to make this offense better. Golden Tate is a good complementary WR while Darius Slayton was a find last year as an unsung rookie who played quite well. There’s some talent to work with here and it will be interesting to see what new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett does with this group when he doesn’t have Jerry Jones peaking over his shoulder and giving his two cents.
I’m not going to lie, this defense doesn’t look good on paper, they might be worse on a football field. Up front they have Dexter Lawrence, Dalvin Tomlinson and Leonard Williams; that’s a lot of beef but not necessarily a lot of playmaking. They need Williams to really wreak havoc. This is a 3-4 defense so the pass rush is supposed to come from the OLBs. Markus Golden had 10 sacks last season but he’s not exactly a guy teams have to game plan to stop. Lorenzo Carter and Oshane Ximines had 4.5 each but that’s not a great total from your top three pass rushers. The signed Blake Martinez to fill in one of the ILB spots but the other spot might be a problem. The team’s big free agent addition was CB James Bradberry and while he comes in as a #1 guy, he’s about all they have. DeAndre Baker was cut due to off-the-field issues and Sam Beal opted out, so the team is focused on Corey Ballentine as the #2. They recently signed Logan Ryan to play FS but I’m not sure how he isn’t a better option at CB than Ballentine, time will tell how it shakes out. Jabrill Peppers is the strong safety and he’s fine but he has to cover up too many mistakes by the guys in front of him and the guys behind him.
I like the potential of the offense more than what it might actually be and the defense might come together and not be as bad as I think it will be. However, in today’s NFL I can see offenses running up major points against this team and the Giants offense isn’t good enough to keep up.
Washington Football Team
Washington is forgoing a team nickname this year as they are trying to decide what to use after ditching their former moniker, you know, the offensive one. 2020 is the perfect year for this to happen because calling the franchise the Washington Football Team isn’t in the top 200 of the weirdest things to happen in sports this year. Ron Rivera has taken over and he should bring a stability to this franchise it hasn’t seen since Joe Gibbs’ first tenure as head coach. Rivera is going to keep Dwayne Haskins as his QB since he needs to know if the kid is the future or if they need to quickly move on. Haskins isn’t one of the major problems with this offense but he’ll have to deal with the other ones. The left side of the offensive line is going to be dicey as they plan on having Geron Christian start at LT, that’s not ideal. The LG spot is also unsettled and they aren’t great at center. The good news is RG Brandon Scherff and RT Morgan Moses are solid, although Scherff is on a one-year franchise tag so the future is murky. At WR, the team has an emerging star in Terry McLaurin and he has a great rapport with his former college teammate Haskins. Beyond McLaurin they have Steven Sims who was decent last year and they could really use a big rookie year out of Antonio Gandy-Golden. At RB the team dropped Darius Guice during the early part of camp due to off-the-field issues and then cut Adrian Peterson late because they want to lose games play younger guys. They have Bryce Love who might actually be recovered from an injury that kept him on the sidelines for far too long and they have Antonio Gibson, a multitalented player who isn’t a pure RB, he’s more of hybrid. Logan Thomas will play TE, how well is debatable.
The Washington defense has potential and with Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio in charge I wouldn’t bet against them. Up front they have #2 overall pick Chase Young, second-year man Montez Sweat and veteran Ryan Kerrigan at DE, that a good trio and Young has exceptional skills. At DT, they have Da’Ron Payne, Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioannidis, that is also a good trio. LB is a lot more problematic as they signed the hopefully ageless Thomas Davis who used to star for Rivera in Carolina. They also have veteran Jon Bostic who has never been great. Shaun Dion Hamilton and Cole Holcomb are guys they hope can give them something. The secondary is looking at Kendall Fuller, Fabian Moreau and Ronald Darby at CB, not a stellar group but okay. At safety they have Landon Collins, a talented veteran, and Troy Apke and unknown youngster.
This defense could keep them in games with Rivera and Del Rio knowing how to get the most out of this bunch but the offense is going to struggle. I like Haskins, and McLaurin and Gibson have big play potential but the rest of the offense isn’t ready for prime time.
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