Ryan’s NFL Preview: NFC East

This division gets almost no publicity, so it’ll be tough to dig up any pertinent information on these teams. That’s what took me so long to get a post up today. That and 18 holes of golf.

Dallas Cowboys: I’m not sold on the Cowboys being a juggernaut, but Terrell Owens continues to be better than I ever think. If Patrick Crayton steps up to become the ‘Boys’ second receiver and Felix Jones is an adequate secondary back, Tony Romo (who is wildly overrated) will be fine. The defense is good as well, which it always seems to be. I don’t know that they have the overwhelming talent everyone else does, and this will be a contentious division. And hey, who ate all the popcorn?
Philadelphia Eagles: The Eagles are pretty much the same team they always are, except this time around they have a good ground game outside of Donovan McNabb. They have a good secondary, but I don’t lknow how they are going to stop the run (Chris Gocong? Stewart Bradley? Former Twins pitcher Joe Mays?) I would lament the lack of a quality receiver, but it’s never been a problem in the past, and apparently Desean Jackson is impressing. Barring a McNabb injury, the Eagles are probably a playoff team.

New York Giants: The Giants certainly played well in their last game. Unfortunately, this is still the same 9-7 team it was last year, only with a dramatically weakened defense and a suddenly confident Eli Manning. Expect more interceptions out of Manning and a struggle to reach .500, especially with this incredibly challenging division. Fortunately, every other team that could contend for the final wild card spot is terrible, so they could find their way into the playoffs again.

Washington Redskins: It’s a pretty common theme this year in the NFL, of teams going out and improving parts of the roster that don’t need the improvement. The Redskins have gone out and improved their defense, but their offense looks to be problematic at the very least. Any exposed weakness like this is going to be good enough to send a team to the bottom of the division. The Redskins may end up as the best 5-11 team ever.