Who will win the NFC East?
We are starting a new series here at National Football Rant, divisional winner predictions. Each week we will choose one division to go over and choose who we think will win the division in 2021.
To begin, we chose arguably the worst division in the NFL last season, the NFC East. In 2020 the division came in last with total wins, and conversely first in total losses. The Washington Football Team won the division with a 7-9 record and lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the playoffs. So will the Football Team repeat as division winners or will another team make a push to dethrone the team with no name?
The Dallas Cowboys have been quite mediocre over the past couple of years, having made the playoffs last in 2018 when they lost in the divisional round to the Green Bay Packers. This offseason the Cowboys extended Dak Prescott to a long term deal, singing him to a four year, $160 million contract. They’ve committed to Dak for the long term, and have really proven their commitment to him through the paycheck that they’re giving him. Apart from signing Dak to this deal, Dallas has been relatively silent throughout free agency, only adding some smaller names to their defense and bringing back some familiar faces. Dallas’ head coach Mike McCarthy has a rough year ahead of him, as he is likely on the hot seat. Mike’s got to get this team together and make a push towards the playoffs, and smashing watermelons with sledgehammers wont be the deciding factor for whether his team will be successful again, the work has to be put in.
Moving on, the New York Giants have had a better free agency than Dallas. The reason for this is that they have truly helped their young quarterback more than any other team in their division. In recent weeks the G men signed speedy receiver John Ross to a one year $2.5 million deal, agreed to a two year $14 million deal with tight end Kyle Rudolph, and just this weekend they signed Kenny Golladay to a four year $72 million deal as well. The Giants offense now consists of Daniel Jones under center, Saquon Barkley at running back, Kenny Golladay, Darius Slayton and John Ross as their main pass catchers and Kyle Rudolph and Evan Engram at tight end. Not a bad offense. On the other side of the ball the team locked up Leonard Williams to a three year $63 million deal, and are making a strong push for defensive back, Adoree Jackson. The Giants and GM Dave Gettleman are clearly operating as if this season could be it for the Gettleman era, and if they cannot make the playoffs, there could be yet another clean of house. We’ll see what happens.
The Philadelphia Eagles started their offseason off with trading their star quarterback to the Colts and firing their super bowl winning head coach, Doug Pederson. The team will now hopefully be building around Jalen Hurts, however we will all have to wait until after the draft to say this conclusively. If the Eagles were to draft a quarterback at pick number six, we can expect the team to have yet another down year. On second thought, the team will likely have another down year no matter what, considering they’ve cut two of their receivers, Desean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery, and they’ve given tight end Zach Ertz permission to seek a trade. If the team is able to be competitive and push for a playoff spot we will be surprised.
And finally, the Washington Football Team, the reigning division champions. Over free agency the team added quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, a move that will provide competition in the quarterback room between himself, Kyle Allen and Taylor Heinicke. The team also signed William Jackson and Curtis Samuel, two players that will completely change the attitude of both sides of the ball. The Football Team has one of the best defenses in the entire league, focused around Chase Young, and will continue to shock teams throughout the NFL. The one weakness to this team is the quarterback position. Several years ago they drafted Dwayne Haskins out of Ohio State, who was later cut last season. And they made it to the playoffs last year led behind Alex Smith, who is also no longer playing in Washington. If Washington drafts a quarterback, which they are poised to do, it will be worth watching if they are able to turn him into a star and push towards the post season.
In summary, who will win this division? Well, with all that has happened, and with so much still to happen come April, we will pick the reigning champs to take the east home. We think it will shake out with New York coming second, Dallas as a close third and the Eagles will be dead last. The reason for this pick, between one and two, comes down to quarterbacks. As mentioned before, the Football team doesn’t have their franchise guy yet, but are much better off than the Giants are. We do not think Daniel Jones is the guy for the Giants, and whoever is drafted by Washington to take the job eventually, will get to sit behind NFL vet, Ryan Fitzpatrick and watch magic on the field. Both of these teams will have solid offenses but it will come down to defense, as everything in this sport does, and Washington has the edge in that department (literally). As for the Cowboys, we just don’t see the Mike McCarthy era getting much better, we don’t think that Dak will do much better than Andy Dalton did with that dumpster fire of an organization, and despite all the stars in Dallas we just don’t think they’ll be able to compete with those other two teams. And in dead last, the Eagles made a mistake all the way back when they drafted Jalen Hurts. That selection ultimately led to Carson Wentz being traded out of town due to his poor performance, and now they’re stuck with Jalen and will look horrible if they draft a quarterback at sixth overall. All they can really do is play the bad guy and take Mac Jones, be conservative and draft Kyle Pitts or Devonta Smith, or surprise everyone and trade the house for Deshaun Watson. And with this last option being the least likely, we’ve put the Eagles in dead last.