2019 NFC East Preview

You probably don’t care about this division. I know I don’t. The Redskins are one of the most boring teams in the league, Dallas is fairly bland as well, and the Giants are entertaining only as a car wreck. But whether you like these teams or not, they’re going to be on TV all the time. So you might as well familiarize yourself with them.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Upside

The depth across the roster in Philadelphia makes them the clear favorites in the division. I have some concerns about their secondary, but outside of that I’m not sure there’s any unit on the field that would even be in consideration for being called below average. They have a top tier offensive line, a versatile receiving group, and a lethal pass rush. They should finish near the top of the league both offensively and defensively, and if they stay healthier than last year they should coast to a division title.

My one big concern is Carson Wentz. He got stronger as the season went along in 2018, after some shaky performances early on as he came back from injury. He’s shown that he’s a capable starting quarterback in the NFL, but I have yet to see any evidence that he can be more than that. In a conference with future Hall of Famers leading teams nearly as loaded as the Eagles, I worry that their ceiling may be limited by a middle of the pack quarterback, and unless Wentz can take the step forward that he looked on the verge of making in 2017, this feels more like a team that will wilt out in the second round of the playoffs.

The Downside

That said, I’m not sure if there’s much downside argument for them either. There is too much talent top to bottom on this team for things to really fall apart, as even with a couple injuries they have quality depth to fill the void. They lost some of their depth on the defensive line in the offseason, but they did a decent job patching it up by bringing back Vinny Curry and adding Malik Jackson. As long as they continue to dominate up front, I think they’ll be fine on defense.

There are some concerns I could raise about their offense. They really don’t have anyone proven at running back, though rookie second round pick Miles Sanders is a phenomenal athlete who has gotten rave reviews in training camp. Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson are old for wide receivers, and if they take a step back the passing game could sputter. But even then they still have a pair of quality tight ends, and an elite offensive line. They’ll be fine no matter what happens, and I would be stunned if we reached the final couple weeks of the season and they weren’t still at the very least in contention to make the postseason.

Player to Watch – Malcolm Jenkins, S

The talent disparity between the secondary in Philadelphia and the rest of their roster is glaring. They have a couple decent pieces at the top of their cornerback depth chart, but it falls off hard after the starters, and even one injury could spell doom for them on the outside. Fortunately, they have one of the league’s best stabilizing presences in the middle. Jenkins has been the rock on the back end of this defense for several seasons now, and as long as they have him on the field they’ll have some measure of competence in the back end.

Jenkins has never been a big numbers guy. He has 17 interceptions over ten years in the league, hardly the ball hawking safety people expected when he came out of Ohio State as a converted cornerback. But what he sacrifices in raw, exciting playmaking he makes up for in stability and versatility. He can play in the box, or he can drop into a deep zone, or match up with a receiver in the slot, and the Eagles can always count on him to be exactly where he needs to be. Beside fellow veteran safety Rodney McLeod, he gives the Eagles security and stability in the back end, which is all they really need with the depth of playmakers they have up front.

Dallas Cowboys

The Upside

Dallas made the playoffs a year ago on the strength of a breakout defense and an offense that emerged from its slumber after the midseason acquisition of Amari Cooper. Cooper is back, all their young players are a year older, and it’s easy to imagine this as the year everything comes together. The return of Travis Frederick at the heart of their offense could kick things up a notch on that side of the ball, while the defense continues to be the athletic terror it was a season ago.

This is the only team that could really challenge Philadelphia for the division, and if everything breaks right they could emerge as a dark horse Super Bowl contender. That’s probably a bit too optimistic, and it will require Dak Prescott to rediscover the elite flashes he showed during his rookie season. But the pieces are all in place, and they just need about a dozen lucky breaks to find themselves in a position to go on a major run this year.

The Downside

If all those pieces break right, the Cowboys can compete with anyone. But if they go the other direction, it could get equally as ugly. Already the cracks are starting to show in the preseason. Ezekiel Elliott is holding out, and after Le’Veon Bell skipped all of last season we can no longer take a star running back putting his body on the line in a contract year as a given. DeMarcus Lawrence has struggled with injury during the offseason, and even if he makes it back in time for the regular season, he might not be at full speed. That would put a lot of pressure on disappointing draft pick Taco Charlton and veteran addition Robert Quinn to step up and carry the pass rush.

And there is always the additional risk with a team that succeeded thanks to a breakout defense. Sometimes it is sustainable, like the Seahawks when their young talent first emerged seven years ago. But we have seen plenty of examples since then of teams falling back to earth once their defense is merely good rather than elite. The Cowboys have a lot of young talent, but young talent simply means more on offense than on defense, and right now this team is skewed in the wrong direction.

Player to Watch – Michael Gallup, WR

If the Cowboys are going to take the next step, they are going to need to learn to be more versatile on offense. Last year they basically pounded the ball to Elliott to run down the clock, broken up by occasional explosive plays from Cooper. But with the loss of Cole Beasley in the offseason their passing game is extremely thin on weapons (Jerry Jones rescuing Jason Witten from the Monday Night Football booth isn’t going to solve anything), and they need someone else on the outside to step up.

That someone could be Gallup. Last year’s third round pick came on as the season went along, earning a bigger role and quietly finishing with over 500 receiving yards. He is now the clear number two receiver in Dallas, and he needs to perform like it. To take the next step—or to weather the inevitable regression of their defense—the offense needs to be more aggressive and more versatile, and for that to happen they need someone other than Cooper for Prescott to count on in the passing game.

Washington Redskins

The Upside

I can make a case for this being the year this defense breaks out. They have invested a lot of high picks along the defensive front in recent years, and this could be the year it all comes together, if rookie Montez Sweat bursts onto the scene at the same time Jonathan Allen and Da’Ron Payne develop into players worthy of their draft hype. Ryan Kerrigan will put up 9-13 sacks as he always does, and Josh Norman is still a solid cover man at the back end, even if he’s never quite managed to recapture his high point in Carolina.

The offense is harder to justify. I know Case Keenum was a game away from the Super Bowl just two years ago, but I watched pretty much every throw he made that year, and he was not the quarterback the numbers made him out to be. Washington is going to get something a lot more like what Denver got a year ago, and with a mediocre cast of supporting weapons there isn’t much reason to expect more than that. Maybe when Dwayne Haskins inevitably takes over under center, things will swing around in their favor. But I think he’s the sort of quarterback who will need time to adjust to the NFL, especially if left tackle Trent Williams sticks to his guns and does not play for Washington.

The Downside

I’m going to be honest, I had an audible reaction when I pulled up Washington’s current depth chart. They’ve been uninterestingly mediocre for several years now, and I expected to find myself writing more of the same. Instead I audibly cringed as I saw what they were working with. Their starting wide receivers are Josh Doctson and Paul Richardson. The left side of their offensive line is Geron Christian and Ereck Flowers. They’re still trotting out Jordan Reed at tight end, who miraculously only missed three games a year ago. And that doesn’t even mention their defense, where they are relying on players like John Bostic and Ryan Anderson in major roles.

For the first time in a few years, it is very easy to see things completely falling apart in Washington. Especially when they do switch to Haskins at quarterback, putting him behind a broken offensive line with an athletic but inexperienced receiving group. I like Jay Gruden as a head coach, and I think he can hold things together to keep them from total collapse. But I also know how a toxic ownership situation can pollute things from the top down, and it’s much easier to envision a scenario where they pick in the top five than it is to see them in the postseason.

Player to Watch – Vernon Davis, TE

Looking over Washington’s roster is basically a game of, “Oh, I didn’t realize that guy was still in the league.” You’ve got Donald Penn at tackle, Josh Norman at cornerback, Colt McCoy at quarterback, and of course, Adrian Peterson at running back. But perhaps the most surprising is Davis, the former BattleBots judge who is now entering his fourth anonymous year in Washington.

Davis is far from the star he was during his early years in San Francisco. He only had 367 yards receiving last year, and he’s put up nine touchdowns total since scoring 13 in 2013. He’s a part time player in an offense that isn’t catered towards anyone putting up big numbers. And yet, he’s still a fascinating watch, because the elite athleticism that defined his early career hasn’t gone away. He still has blistering speed from the tight end position, and it flashes just often enough to make him interesting and to remind us of the dynamic force he used to be.

New York Giants

The Upside

Innovation is a key trait of the most successful franchises in the NFL, and you have to admit, what the Giants are doing certainly is innovative. Not many other teams have tried the “get rid of all our good players and try to build our team in a way that is completely antithetical to everything that has had success in the past decade in the NFL”, but maybe the Giants have found something going against the trend.

It isn’t ridiculous to think that maybe Saquon Barkley is the rare sort of running back who can carry an offense in the modern NFL, and that maybe the heavy investment they’ve made in their offensive line over the past couple years could pan out. Even with Odell Beckham gone they have a decent stable of weapons on the outside, with youngsters Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram joined by veteran free agent Golden Tate. There are pieces here that very well could come together to form a functional, and perhaps even exciting offense. Of course, they’re still quarterbacked by late career Eli Manning, so even if their mad scheme does prove to be brilliant, they aren’t going to win more than six games.

The Downside

On the other side of things, this could be a disaster of catastrophic proportions. This is a team that just let an elite safety walk to a division rival in free agency, and traded away a top five receiver for a draft pick they used on a space eating defensive tackle. This is after trading away in the middle of last season one of the best space eating defensive tackles for a much worse draft selection. Honestly if I actively tried to dismantle a franchise, I’m not sure if I could have come up with what the Giants did over the past year.

In the section above I listed the pieces on offense that you could almost imagine coming together to form something functional. I can’t do the same with the defense. They used two of their three first round picks there, but neither profiles as an immediate impact player. And of course, their other first round selection was used on Daniel Jones, who will provide nothing for them this year except an unceasing headache about whether to give him the standard rookie try once the season is sunk or to let Manning go out with what little dignity remains in his floundering career.

Player to Watch – Jabrill Peppers, S

The one interesting piece they got back from the Beckham trade, Peppers is a player currently without a role in the NFL. In college he was a pure athlete, undisciplined and unrefined but able to make plays using raw instincts in a scheme that got him as close as possible to the ball. So, naturally, his first two years in the NFL were spent under the tutelage of Gregg Williams, who forced him to play as the last line of defense in a deep zone thirty yards from the line of scrimmage.

The Giants should try everything in their power this year to recapture the playmaker he was in college. Put him in the box as a linebacker. Send him on crazy blitzes. Match him up in man coverage against running backs, tight ends, wide receivers. Don’t worry about stopping the other team from scoring points, because that isn’t going to happen. Just throw as much randomness at a wall and see if anything sticks, and hope that Peppers is still around and settled into the defense by the time they actually have the talent to win games.