Once a week I will take a division and make some largely baseless and undoubtedly erroneous predictions as to their standings by the end of the regular season. Based on their off-season moves and news I’ll attempt to give you the most realistic idea as to how each team will go starting with the NFC East:
Division Winners: Dallas Cowboys, 11-5 record. Dallas had something of a breakthrough last year with the emergence of Miles Austen, positive playoff performances and a rock hard defense rated 9th in yards per game and 4th overall against the rush. Romo is showing some real form and with the 1st round pick Dez Bryant to hopefully replace Roy Williams the pass at Dallas will be formidable. Dallas also helped themselves to some depth defensively with Penn State’s Sean Lee in the second round and while they released aging LT Flozell Adams realistically they have the depth to handle it. As much as it pains me to say it, and it pains me, Dallas will win the NFC East in 2010.
Antrel is going to 'Rolle' with the Giants this year. Pun very much intended.
Division Runners Up: New York Giants, 10-6 record. The Giants started off strong in 2009 but soon hit a wall and a nasty loosing streak only managing an 8-8 record. This off-season has seen some interesting moves picking up a new DE in Jason Pierre-Paul in the first round and DT in Linvale Joseph in the second. Clearly they want to move away from their middling defensive performance last year starting with the defensive line. Did I mention they grabbed Antrel Rolle in free agency? That is an immediate improvement for their secondary. Like Dallas the Giants found a potential star at WR in Steve Smith and all they need to do now is get their run game back in form and they could be contenders.
Donovan McNabb looks just as confused as the rest of us.
Then: Washington Redskins, 8-8 record. In this off-season everything changed for the Redskins. New Coach, new GM, new quarterback, new defensive scheme and a new twinkle in owner Dan Snyder’s eye. In perhaps the biggest off-season move the Skins traded away their 2nd round pick for Donovan McNabb from the Eagles. Yes. The Eagles traded away their franchise quarterback who is still putting up career numbers to one of their most hated rivals. Excellent. The Skins also fixed their OL problems by getting the athletic Trent Williams with their 4th pick and two other offensive line players in later rounds. Expect the Skins to do better than they did last year but not truly excel under Mike Shanahan until next season.
Finally: Philadelphia Eagles, 6-10 record. The Eagles’ front office don’t like to throw around words like ‘rebuilding’ or ‘senicide’ but boy howdy they sure are getting rid of the old in favor of the new. Brian Westbrook? Gone! Too concussed! Donovan McNabb? Gone! Too.. excellent? Hmmm. Kevin Kolb is the new starting QB, LeSean McCoy is the new starting RB and a new emphasis on defense in the draft saw the Eagles use 9 of their 13(13!) picks go to defensive players including the Wolverines’ DE Brandon Graham. While Kolb performed well in his two games last season and DeSean Jackson really lit it up I can’t see them settle and start to contend for the division for another year at least.
There you have it. I concede that the Eagles and the Skins could easily swap records this season, or perhaps both go 8-8. However I just don’t believe Kolb will do as well as McNabb in his first year starting, as with any young team (and the Eagles are young) look to the future.
Next week I jump over to take a look at the AFC East. Stay tuned.
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