Back again for some more football previewing for the year. This time I'm looking at the NFC East. I think this division has fewer questions than the AFC East does. You're looking at a horse race between Washington and New York. Dallas will be pretty mediocre and Philadelphia will be fairly bad.
The NY Giants imploded after looking amazing in the early part of last year. The Giants were 6-2 at one point in the season and Eli Manning just fell apart. They finished 9-7. I don't know what happened with the team last year. But they haven't changed over the roster too much and I imagine they won't have the same struggles this year. The Giants typically aren't a good regular season team. Go back and look at their recent Super Bowl seasons. They were marginal regular season teams that caught fire in the playoffs. I don't think the Giants can do that this year. I could easily see a 10-6 team not making it into the playoffs this year. The NFC is just packed with good teams. Like I said, I don't really know what to say about the Giants. They're such a hit and miss team.
The Washington Redskins won the East last year with a 10-6 record. RG3 and Alfred Morris were huge for the offense. Morris ran for 1613 yards and 13 TDs while RG3 had a remarkable year for a rookie QB. I think the really remarkable thing about the offense is RG3 threw for 3200 yards and the top receiver on the team only had 633 yards receiving. RG3 likes to spread it around and it makes the offense really unpredictable. The defense was pretty iffy. They made plays when they had to but this team needs the offense to win. I think the question you're looking at here is the health of RG3 coming into this season. He suffered a fairly serious injury last year and you wonder how that will affect him on the field. I think there are also some health questions about him in general. He's not very big and you wonder if the big hits are going to take a toll on him. I think if he stays healthy, you're looking at the favorites to win the East right here.
Dallas is a small wildcard. They always have some talent and could potentially be a threat. Then you realize Jason Garrett is the head coach, Tony Romo is the QB, Dez Bryant is their biggest threat at receiver, they have a mediocre offensive line and a pretty average defense. The running game is hopeless if DeMarco Murray isn't on the field. Jason Garrett is a terrible terrible coach. He has no creativity in his play calling and he gets out coached on a weekly basis. Go back and look at their week 17 loss to the Redskins. The Redskins threw the same blitz at them the entire game. The same blitz and Dallas never adjusted one bit. That's what you're dealing with here. Dallas could go into the last bit of the season at 8-2 and they would somehow find a way to end up at 8-8 or 9-7. My stance is Dallas isn't a threat until they can prove that they can win when it matters.
Philadelphia was lucky to be 4-12 last year. They could have easily been 1-15 or 2-14 if they didn't pull a couple of early wins out of their collective butts. Plain and simple, Michael Vick isn't an NFL calibur starting QB anymore. He was a disaster and a turnover machine last season. I think the Eagles need to just bench Vick now and see what they have with Matt Barkley. Is there really any difference in going 6-10 with Vick at QB or going 3-13 with Barkley learning the ropes? Barkley could always surprise you and make some noise. Other things to note, the Eagles were 29th on points allowed per game. They got rid of some dead weight like Asomugha but didn't add any really impact free agents. This is going to be a feeling out season for Chip Kelly. I think you're looking at a 5-11 team here.
I saw a report where Kelly said he would adapt to the officials and not try to pull his Oregon stunts on them by trying to go as fast as humanly possible. Thing is, that was what made him a success in college and that was what the Eagles brought him in to do. His style of offense is the future of the NFL. It's not what I want to see, but offense offense offense is what the NFL is gunning for, for better or worse. It will be interesting to see how long Chip Kelly keeps himself in check. I give it 4 weeks before he starts letting loose.
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