“It is surprising relative to our preseason expectations, although I did think the division was a little better than [predicted],” stated Joe Banner, a former entrance workplace government for the Eagles and Cleveland Browns. “It was really getting panned pretty badly.”
Games far greater than this once have been the hallmark of the NFC East. The Giants, Cowboys and Washington mixed to win eight Super Bowl titles in a span of 14 seasons between 1982 and ’95. The division boasted 5 Super Bowl triumphs in six seasons to conclude that superb stretch.
But such on-field prosperity is a light reminiscence. The NFC East’s 4 franchises have totaled one Super Bowl victory over the previous decade, the Eagles’ in the 2017 season. The Giants have one playoff look — and zero postseason wins — since securing their second Super Bowl championship in a five-year stretch in the 2011 season.
The Cowboys final reached a Super Bowl in the 1995 season. For Washington, it was the 1991 season. The division reached an NFC Least degree of ineptitude in 2020 when Washington completed in first place at 7-9, so this early-season renaissance is notable.
“There seems to be no letup in the way this league is balanced,” Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones stated in his weekly radio appearance. “And I think that’s what we’ve got in our NFC East. I’m so impressed with really the way Philadelphia has evolved. … That is going to be a real challenge for us up there. They’ve got the goods.”
There is a case to be made that the Eagles are constructing one thing lasting. When their proprietor, Jeffrey Lurie, ousted Doug Pederson as the team’s coach in January 2021, rather less than three years after Pederson orchestrated a Super Bowl victory, Lurie stated Pederson “didn’t deserve to be let go,” however the two had a “difference in vision.” Lurie known as it “a transition point” and stated then that the Eagles needed to get youthful.
“We’ve got to accumulate as much talent as we possibly can that is going to work in the long run,” Lurie stated that day, “with a focus on the midterm and the long term and not on how to maximize 2021.”
They have retooled adeptly. The course of started with Pederson benching quarterback Carson Wentz in favor of Jalen Hurts late in the 2020 season. Next, Lurie and General Manager Howie Roseman employed Nick Sirianni, then a comparatively little-known offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, to interchange Pederson and traded Wentz to the Colts.
Now the Eagles have a roster full of expertise. Hurts is flourishing as a twin risk at quarterback in his second full season as an NFL starter, constructing on final season’s playoff look. Roseman made a draft-night commerce in April for large receiver A.J. Brown to bolster a supporting forged on offense that already included wideout DeVonta Smith, tight finish Dallas Goedert and tailback Miles Sanders.
The Eagles are formidable alongside the offensive and defensive traces. They have an excellent trio of cornerbacks in Darius Slay, James Bradberry and Avonte Maddox. They’re a balanced team, ranked second in the NFL in whole offense and fourth in whole protection.
“I think the Eagles are a very good team,” Banner, a founding father of the web site The 33rd Team, stated. “They’re legitimately in the Super Bowl conversation. But I’ll be surprised if it’s all said and done and they’re the ones left standing.”
The Giants are simply starting their newest revamping section, so their early-season success places them properly forward of schedule. Before their opening-day win over the Tennessee Titans, they’d not been above .500 at any level in a season since 2016.
Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch carried out one other organizational overhaul in the offseason. Dave Gettleman introduced his retirement as basic supervisor. The Giants fired Joe Judge after a two-season teaching tenure. They tapped into the success of the Buffalo Bills by hiring Joe Schoen, the assistant GM in Buffalo, as their basic supervisor and Brian Daboll, the Bills’ offensive coordinator, as their coach.
Under the earlier regime, quarterback Daniel Jones and tailback Saquon Barkley resembled draft busts. Now, they’re wanting extra like the cornerstone gamers they have been drafted to be, not less than when seen via the lens of a profitable begin. Barkley is the NFL’s second-leading rusher.
“The Giants, I think, still have a ways to go and will revert to the talent on the roster as the season goes on,” Banner stated. “But they’re definitely better, and there’s a lot of evidence to believe they’re on the right track for sustained success.”
The Cowboys’ newest bid to get again to a Super Bowl appeared to veer far off track after they misplaced their season opener to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a fractured proper thumb and underwent surgical procedure the following day. The circumstances appeared dire. Enter Cooper Rush. With Prescott’s unheralded backup filling in, the Cowboys have gone 4-0.
“I really thought their offensive line, which I think is their key to success, had deteriorated quite a bit,” Banner stated, expressing the view that the Cowboys will attain the playoffs. “And if you’d told me that they were going to play four games with their backup quarterback combined with what I perceived to be the weakness of their offensive line, I would not have thought there was any chance of them being 4-1.”
A protection led by standout cross rushers Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence and cornerback Trevon Diggs has finished the heavy lifting. Rush and the offense have averted errors. For the time being, the hypothesis about Jones pursuing teaching free agent Sean Payton in the offseason if Mike McCarthy doesn’t take the Cowboys deep into the playoffs has been put apart. McCarthy and his team have persevered.
“Hats off to Dallas,” Sirianni stated at a midweek news convention. “They’ve done just such a great job. They lost one of their best players and one of the better players in the league. And they keep rolling. … That’s the playmakers that they have around Dak, that they have around Cooper. And that’s also coaching.”
It is a second to savor for NFC East’s trio of front-running groups — though not an excessive amount of. There is a lot extra work to be finished.
“It’s very hard to win in this league,” Hurts stated this week. “And I think that’s the balance that I have to obtain, in knowing how hard it is but also being eager and hungry to want more. … Enough is never enough.”