2015 NFL Recap: NFC East

My Preseason Predictions:

1.Philadelphia Eagles (10-6)
2.Dallas Cowboys (9-7)
3.New York Giants (7-9)
4.Washington Redskins (5-11)

Actual Standings:

1.Washington Redskins (9-7)

2.Philadelphia Eagles (7-9)

3.New York Giants (6-10)

4.Dallas Cowboys (4-12) 

Dallas Cowboys:

Team MVP's: T Tyron Smith, G Zach Martin, C Travis Fredrick, ILB Sean Lee, RB Darren McFadden

-The demise of the 2015 Cowboys completely stemmed from the injuries to quarterback Tony Romo and to a lesser extent, wide receiver Dez Bryant. The Cowboys simply didn't have the depth or overall talent to make up for the loss of their two most productive offensive players and the entire team crumbled because of it. 2015 might've been a thoroughly disappointing season for a Cowboys team that was looking to build upon their improbable playoff run in 2014, but they can at least be thankful that they have a good shot at being competitive again if Romo and Bryant can return at full health in 2016.

-On the topic of Romo and Bryant, neither of them should've rushed backed from their injuries. The season was pretty much lost the minute the Romo went down with a broken clavicle in Week 2 and it was 100% lost by the time Bryant returned to the field in Week 8. Bryant was clearly still hampered by the major foot injury he suffered in Week 1 once he returned to the lineup and it made him a non-factor for a majority of the season while Romo was similarly restrained by his clearly unhealed injury as evidenced by his wild inaccuracy and re-breaking of the clavicle in just his second game back. That type of complete and utter disregard for your health is dangerous and the Cowboys better hope that the recklessness Romo and Bryant showed this season doesn't hurt them in the long run.

-On top of being a despicable human being, Greg Hardy also proved in 2015 that he's a gigantic moron. After the Cowboys handed him an opportunity at a comeback after a domestic violence incident nearly derailed his career, Hardy spat in their faces with his awful attitude and lack of dedication to the team. Hardy was repeatedly late to meetings, frequently disrespected his teammates and further confirmed that he's a classless hothead with his violent shoving of special team coach Rich Bisaccia on the sidelines in their Week 8 game against the Giants. Even with his undeniable talent as a player, I don't think another team will be willing to give Hardy a chance after the shit he pulled in Dallas this season.

-The lone bright spot for the Cowboys offense this season was veteran running back Darren McFadden. After Joseph Randle was released following a well-publicized meltdown at the team facility in early November, McFadden took over as the starter and shocked the football world with by being incredibly productive right out of the gate. McFadden was able to stay healthy for the whole year for the first time in forever and showed a level of burst and elusiveness that's been missing from his game since at least 2010 and it allowed him to finish fourth in the league in rushing with 1,089 yards. The pairing of his age (he'll be 29 in August) and lengthy injury history makes you leery of whether or not he'll be able to repeat this success in the future, but at the very least, McFadden deserves a lot of credit for the highly improbable comeback he made this season.

-Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli continues to be the most underrated coordinator in the league. What he's been able to in his two years as the Cowboys defensive coordinator with no true blue-chip talents at his disposal is pretty damn remarkable. The play of the Cowboys defense this season kept them competitive while the offense struggled to points up on the board (only four of their 11 losses without Romo starting were by more than 10 points) and they managed to finish fifth in the league in pass defense, 16th in points per game allowed and 17th in total defense. The unit still has its struggles with getting to the quarterback and stopping the run on a consistent basis, but this overachieving unit is headed in the right direction under Marinelli's guidance.   

New York Giants:

Team MVP's: WR Odell Beckham Jr., QB Eli Manning, C Weston Richburg, CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, G Justin Pugh

 -Lady luck was not on the Giants side in 2015. Five of their 10 losses came in games in which they had the lead with less than 2 minutes to go and three of their other five losses were by five points or less. The strangest thing about they're late-game misfortunes is that just about every one of their losses can be chalked up to something different. Everything from defensive lapses to bad clock management/playcalling to boneheaded penalties to just general tough breaks caused the Giants to suffer last-minute, gut-wrenching losses in 2015. It's kind of crazy to think that this 6-10 team could've easily been a 10-12 win team if they had just been able to hold on late in games.

-Odell Beckham Jr. followed up his unreal rookie season with an equally-impressive sophomore season. Beckham Jr. once again served as the primary playmaker for the Giants offense, picking up 1,450 yards (fifth in the league) and 13 TD's (tied for fourth in the league) in 15 games this season. 2015 provided proof that Beckham Jr's record-breaking rookie season wasn't a fluke and that he is currently in line to be one of the NFL's most lethal receivers for the foreseeable future.

-Despite being held back by a below-average receiving corps (aside from Beckham Jr.) and a crowded running back committee that failed to produce most weeks, Eli Manning still managed to put together a very impressive season in 2015. A greatly improved offensive line prompted by 2013 1st-rounder Justin Pugh being moved from left tackle to left guard and a breakout campaign from second-year center Weston Richburg gave Manning the time to sit back in the pocket and go through his progressions and not rush his throws, which is a luxury he hasn't had since 2011. The solid protection Manning received in 2015 paid off handsomely as he finished the year with career-highs in TD (35) and QBR (93.6). A lot of things prevented the Giants from being a winning football team this season, but the play of Manning sure as hell wasn't one of them.

-Bringing back Steve Spagnuolo- the architect of their menacing 2007 Super Bowl champion defense- as defensive coordinator did not reverse any of the Giants recent defensive misfortunes. To be completely honest, they might've actually been worse than they were in 2014 under Perry Fewell. Their pass-rush was practically non-existent, their rushing defense fell apart once defensive tackle Jonathan Hankins was placed on injured reserve after suffering a torn pectoral muscle against the Buccaneers and their entire secondary (aside from top corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who was once again exceptional) was so consistently terrible that it was hard to believe how any of them were able to make an NFL roster. Based on their collective ineptness, it's hardly surprising that they finished near the bottom of the league in almost every defensive category. With the exception of rush defense and takeaways where they ranked 24th and 7th (tied with the Broncos) respectively, they were in the bottom three in the NFL in every single major category (sacks, passing defense, yards allowed per game and points allowed per game). If the Giants want to avoid falling short of the playoffs for a fifth straight season, they're going to need have to an outstanding draft and free agency period to rebuild this defense.      

Philadelphia Eagles:

Team MVP's: DE Fletcher Cox, S Malcolm Jenkins, ILB Jordan Hicks, T Jason Peters, S Walter Thurmond

-The Chip Kelly GM experiment was a spectacular failure. Just about every one of Kelly's drastic personnel moves backfired and caused this team to become substantially worse than they were in his first two years as head coach. His big-ticket free-agent signings (running back DeMarco Murray and cornerback Byron Maxwell) were amongst the worst players in the league at their respective positions this season, just about all of his draft picks failed to make impact, the quarterback he traded for (Sam Bradford) was every bit as pedestrian as Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez were in 2014 and the guys he entrusted to takeover for departed veterans Jeremy Maclin and Evan Mathis (Jordan Matthews and Allen Barbre) weren't even half as productive as the guys they were replacing. While the friction between him and his players and the string of blowout losses in the middle of the season certainly didn't help, Kelly's failure as a general manager is the primary reason why the Eagles let him go.

-The Eagles were arguably the most erratic team in the NFL this season. Every impressive win (their 39-17 victory over the Saints in Week 5 and their improbable 35-28 upset over the Patriots in Week 13) they picked up where their defense was aggressive and their offense was efficient was balanced out by a lopsided loss (their back-to-back losses 45-17 and 45-14 losses to the Buccaneers and Lions in Week 11 and 12) where they looked helpless and undisciplined on both sides of the ball. Their inability to consistently perform ruined any chance they had at winning the tightly-contested NFC East this season.

-For the first time in a long time, The Eagles look like they're in big trouble at the wide receiver position. Jordan Matthews was well below average in his first season as the top wideout, fellow second-year player Josh Huff continues to show little value outside of the occasional random touchdown or splash play, Riley Cooper was basically invisible yet again and 2015 first-round pick Nelson Agholor's rookie campaign was nothing short of a disaster with his terrible route-running and inability to adjust to the speed of the game at the pro level. There's precisely a zero percent chance that they don't regret letting Jeremy Maclin leave in free agency after watching their current group of WR's stink up the joint in 2015.

-While their defense was wildly inconsistent as a whole in 2015, the Eagles had a number of players that were outstanding the entire season. Defensive end/tackle Fletcher Cox further solidified his standing as one of the most disruptive and well-rounded defensive players in the league, safety Malcolm Jenkins was a force in the middle of the secondary and rookie inside linebacker Jordan Hicks (aka the only good decision Kelly made as GM) proved to be a certified two-way playmaker from the jump. There's still huge gaps at cornerback and some depth problems at linebacker, but the Eagles nucleus of dynamic young players makes them one of the most exciting defensive groups in the league moving forward.   

Washington Redskins:

Team MVP's: T Trent Williams, TE Jordan Reed, CB Bashaud Breeland, QB Kirk Cousins, DT Chris Baker

-The Redskins were clearly the best team in the NFC East, but their winning record and division title has to be taken with a grain of salt. They did not beat a single opponent with a winning record this season (the best team they beat was the 8-8 Bills) and the three times this season where they faced an opponent with an above .500 record (the Patriots, Jets and Panthers), they got outscored 105-46. If this Redskins team wants to be taken seriously in the future, they're going to need to fare much better against quality opponents. 

-The biggest storyline that came out of Washington this season was the sudden emergence of fourth-year quarterback Kirk Cousins. The decision to finally bench to bench Robert Griffin III for Cousins was initially met with a lot of scrutiny, but it proved to be the most intelligent decision Jay Gruden has made in his brief tenure as the Redskins head coach so far. With Cousins under center, the Redskins offense found the spark it had lacked since Griffin III's terrific rookie year in 2012. After a bit of a rough start with four multi-INT games in his first six starts, Cousins found his way and became one of the league's most dependable and productive quarterbacks for the rest of the year, posting 23 TD, a 73.4 CMP%, just 3 INT and a 7-3 record in the last 10 games of the regular season. Personally, I was stunned by Cousins' sudden transformation from raw young backup to viable starting quarterback in less than a year's time. Cousins' hadn't shown much potential in his previous nine career starts and after his terrible display in 2014, I was ready to write him off as another bust for the Redskins. The accuracy, poise and genuine playmaking ability Cousins displayed in 2015 proved me wrong and I now believe he has what it takes to be a successful long-term starter in the league.

-2015 was a reminder of just how good tight end Jordan Reed can be when he's healthy. When he returned to the field in Week 7 after being forced to miss two games with a concussion and minor knee injury, Reed went on an unreal tear for the rest of the season, gathering 63 receptions for 674 yards and 10 TD's over the final 10 games. Reed is the most exciting young tight end in the NFL right now and if he can manage to stay healthy in the future, he could turn into a truly elite player.

-The generally poor play of the defense played a pivotal role in the Redskins' struggles against quality teams this season. As a collective unit, they just weren't very good as they ranked 26th overall in yards allowed (25th against the pass, 26th against the run) and 17th in points per game allowed. Free-agent pickups Terrence Knighton and Stephen Paea underperformed and failed to bring stability to the defensive line, their secondary led by the aging DeAngelo Hall and colossal free agent busts Chris Culliver and Dashon Goldson was once again ranked in the bottom half of the league and the typically-excellent outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan and defensive tackle Jason Hatcher surprisingly failed to play up to their potential. The play of their young guys (cornerback Bashaud Breeland, outside linebackers Preston Smith, safety Kyshoen Jarrett) inspires some hope for the future, but until they reach their full potential, the defense will continue to be the Redskins Achilles heel.