2020 NFL Preview: NFC East

 Dallas Cowboys

2019 Record: 8-8 (2nd in NFC East)

Head Coach: Mike McCarthy (1st season)

Notable Additions: DE Everson Griffen, S HaHa Clinton-Dix, K Greg Zuerlein 

Notable Departures: CB Byron Jones, C Travis Fredrick (retired), DE Robert Quinn

Notable Opt-Outs: FB Jamize Olawale

Biggest Reason for Excitement: Their Dynamic, Weapon-Filled Offense

A combination of dumping the conservative relic Scott Linehan for the aggressive youngster Kellen Moore at OC and the emergence of a couple new weapons made the Cowboys offense really pop in 2019. Dak Prescott threw for a career-high 4,902 YDS, they had two receivers go for over 1,000 YDS (Amari Cooper-1,189, Michael Gallup-1,107), Tony Pollard shined as a situational change-of-pace back (455 YDS and 2 TD's on just 86 carries) and Ezekiel Elliott (1,777 scrimmage YDS, 14 TD's) put up yet another monster season as the workhorse back.

Remarkably, the Cowboys could be even been more dangerous heading into 2020. Rookie wideout CeeDee Lamb was one of the most exciting,  high upside prospects in this year's draft and new starting tight end Blake Jarwin, who has reportedly had an excellent camp, represents a huge athleticism/speed boost from 65-year old Jason Witten and Prescott is essentially entering another contract year after failing to reach a long-term deal with the Cowboys after receiving the franchise tag prior to the start of free agency in March. An offense that can attack their opponents in an array of different ways isn't fun to line up against and there's a distinct possibility that they end up as the top offense in the league if everything clicks

Biggest Question Mark: The Degree of Mike McCarthy's Influence on the Offense

As I alluded to above, Moore taking over as offensive coordinator was a big reason why the Cowboys offense made so much noise last year. He opened up the playbook by allowing Prescott to take a lot more shots downfield without taking away from Elliott's heavy workload-which made this group a lot more dangerous than when they were running Linehan's archaic playbook that featured nothing but runs and short-to-intermediate play action passes. This success was exactly why he was the only top assistant from Jason Garrett's staff to be retained by the Cowboys after their longtime head coach was fired in January.

While Moore retained both his job and playcalling duties, it remains to be seen how much or little power his new boss Mike McCarthy is going to have in the gameplanning process. Despite stating that Moore will be calling the plays, it's hard to believe that McCarthy-who was the primary offensive shotcaller throughout his tenure with the Packers-is just going to sit back and let some whippersnapper with 1 year of coordinator experience completely run the show.

If McCarthy does indeed end up having a notable influence on the offense, the group's ability to be an elite unit could be in jeopardy.. His philosophy couldn't be any more different than Moore's and the prospects of pivoting from an offense that isn't afraid to attack downfield to a ball-control approach that kind of resembles Linehan's system would be highly detrimental for a team that just saw a notable improvement on offense because of their new philosophy. Perhaps the year away from coaching and an ugly final season in Green Bay humbled McCarthy enough to let somebody else handle the offense, but the fear of him meddling in the operation is very real until we see otherwise.  

Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Showing Up When It Matters

It's no secret that the Cowboys have one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the league. In addition to the skill position guys I've already praised extensively here, they have a stellar offensive line headed up by guard 6x All-Pro guard Zack Martin, a highly productive pass rusher in DeMarcus Lawrence and a young linebacker duo in Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch that has pretty much limitless potential. 

Thus far, this current group has maintained the underachieving standard that has been the norm for this franchise since their last dynasty collapsed roughly 25 years ago. They've failed to deliver in most situations where adversity has hit and some of their current stars (Prescott, Elliott, Cooper) have a track record of quitting when a game gets out of hand early. Whether it's through McCarthy bringing in a new attitude or these guys just maturing, this mentality is going to have change if they want to reach the next level.

All of the excuses for their continued lack of big game success are out the window. They have a roster full of guys with huge talent and the NFC East is arguably the easiest division to win in football right now as the Giants and Washington are in the middle of rebuilding and the Eagles have glaring personnel holes (secondary, receiver, potentially offensive line) that are much more serious than any of the Cowboys issues. The window is wide open- now they have to break free of the mental softness that has plagued them for 20+ years and restore the championship mentality that made this franchise so iconic.

Bottom Line:

Mental toughness and big game no shows are the only things keeping the Cowboys from being one of the best in the conference, if not the whole league. 

New York Giants

2019 Record: 4-12 (3rd in NFC East)

Head Coach: Joe Judge (1st season)

Notable Additions: CB James Bradberry, ILB Blake Martinez, CB Logan Ryan

Notable Departures: QB Eli Manning (retired), K Aldrick Rosas, T Mike Remmers 

Notable Opt-Outs: T Nate Solder

Biggest Reason for Excitement: A Healthy Saquon Barkley

An early season high ankle sprain put a serious damper on Barkley's sophomore campaign. While he only missed 3 games due to this ailment, his visible lack of explosiveness and cutting ability indicated that he was playing hurt for most of the season. Fans did get some very reassuring news for the future at the tail end of his lost season, as he returned to dominant form in the final 3 games including a Week 16 explosion against Washington that resulted in a career-high 279 scrimmage YDS.    

As he heads into year 3, he's fully healthy and ready to restake his claim as the best young running back in the league. This offense is a completely different beast when he's operating at full health and with a young quarterback tasked with learning his 2nd offense in 2 seasons and an offensive line that's still trying to solidify a corps as they plug in multiple new starters for the 3rd straight season (rookie tackles Andrew Thomas and Matt Peart will be taking over for Nate Solder and Mike Remmers), they're going to lean heavily on him to stay afloat while the rest of the group tries to figure things out. As lofty of a challenge as this for a 23-year old to take on, Barkley is versatile, tough and elusive enough to do handle that burden. 

Biggest Question Mark: The Entire Coaching Staff

When Dave Gettleman and the widely respected Giants ownership tandem of John Mara and Steve Tisch elected to fire Pat Shurmur after posting a 9-23 record in 2 seasons as the head coach, they appeared to be in a position to land a top name in a year that had several very promising candidates. They are after all a marquee franchise with several promising offensive pieces on their roster, so somebody like Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy-who has served under Andy Reid since 2013 and played a key role in the development of Patrick Mahomes, Ravens OC Greg Roman-who was the architect behind Lamar Jackson's monumental year 2 improvement that ended with him winning the MVP or Gary Kubiak- a brilliant offensive mind with a Super Bowl ring to his name who reportedly entertained returning to head coaching before accepting the Vikings OC gig following the departure of Kevin Stefanski would make sense right? Well this is the present day Giants, so of course they passed on all of those guys and made a WTF hire that nobody saw coming.

This confusing hire was Joe Judge-who was the Patriots special teams coordinator from 2015-19 and had the distinct honor of overseeing the 2019 receiver group that made Tom Brady briefly hate football. Judge may prove to be some kind of hidden gem that has managed to allude being a hot name on the coaching carousel for the past several years, but considering the rotten stench of miserable failure and unjust arrogance stemming from Belichick's coaching tree (save for Brian Flores, who at least for now look like he might be for real) and the "WE'RE GOING TO BE A LUNCHPAIL TEAM WHERE GUYS SHOW UP AND EARN THEIR JOBS THE OLD FASHIONED WAY BY PUNCHING EACH OTHER IN THE FACE FOR 10 HOURS A DAY" hardo attitude he's displayed since his unintentionally introductory hilarious press conference back in mid-January doesn't exactly inspire confidence that's he going to be anything more than Matt Patricia without a stupid pencil behind his ear.

Further casting doubt on the Judge era in the Meadowlands was who he tapped to be his top assistants. Jason Garrett somehow managed to land an offensive coordinator job right away after being nothing more than a clapping mannequin for the Cowboys over the past 9 seasons. Garrett hasn't actively called plays since 2010 and considering that Jerry Jones let Scott Linehan flounder around for 4 seasons as OC while retaining his services as HC, I'm pretty confident that he's not same untapped brilliant offensive mind that's well-suited to lead the development of a youth-driven group. 

Closing out this shaky trifecta is defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Patrick Graham. Graham was poached from the Dolphins staff after overseeing the worst scoring defense in football that also finished near the bottom against the run (27th) and pass (26th). While it's fair to say that Graham's struggles were because he had nothing to work with in Miami, things with the Giants aren't exactly much better. They ranked 30th in scoring defense a season ago with only a few players making notably positive contributions (Dalvin Tomlinson, Dexter Lawrence, Lorenzo Carter) and their biggest offseason positive was adding a few middling veterans (James Bradberry, Blake Martinez, Logan Ryan) to round out a lineup that mostly features many of the same guys that struggled (save for corner DeAndre Baker-whose on the Commissioner's Exempt List indefinitely after he got caught pulling off the heist of the century last spring). Even if those vets do come in and make a greater than expected impact, there's still enough depth problems with their pass rush and secondary group that a finish any higher than 20th would be very surprising.      

Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Daniel Jones Making a Big Year 2 Leap

Jones saw the field earlier than expected last season after Eli Manning stumbled out of the gate, appearing in 13 games (12 starts). During that time, Jones was pretty much as advertised showing off an appealing skill set (mobility, splash play ability, some great throws under pressure/in clutch situations) that could be developed into something while making a ton of bad decisions and whiffing easy throws.

Now, the big question is if he'll able to be able build off those good moments in year 2. To do so, he's going to overcome the difficult task of trying to learn a new offense in a COVID-shortened offseason where he got no time to work with his wideouts or get real situations to demonstrate his command (or lackthereof) of the new verbiage. 

The silver lining to this difficult situation is that all of his preferred passing options from last (Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, Evan Engram) are back and as of right now, no new additions figure to be heavily involved in the passing game.  Not having to build chemistry with guys that are unfamiliar with how you play is a huge blessing that should make this crucial task a little less imposing. If he manages to take a big step forward in this far from ideal scenario, the Giants should feel really good about Jones' future. 

Bottom Line:

While their offense has some potential, their weak defense and questionable coaching staff makes it hard to believe that the Giants are going to make it out of the league's basement in 2020.   

Philadelphia Eagles

2019 Record: 9-7 (1st in NFC East)

Head Coach: Doug Pederson (5th season)

Notable Additions: CB Darius Slay, DT Javon Hargrave, CB Nickell Robey-Coleman

Notable Departures: S Malcolm Jenkins, T Halapoulivatti Vaitai, RB Jordan Howard

Notable Opt-Outs: WR Marquise Goodwin

Biggest Reason for Excitement: New Corners

The corner spot has been a constant source of suffering for Doug Pederson's teams. They've trotted out a whole host of characters at the position in recent memory (Ronald Darby, Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox-just to name a few) and due to injuries, ineffective play or a combination of the two, none of their options have produced overly favorable results. Well after several seasons of trying to make due with what they've had and bringing in guys off the street to fill the roster in the middle of the season, they decided to invest in some veteran help at the position.

Shortly into the new league year, the team acquired Darius Slay from the Lions for a 3rd and 5th round pick in this year's draft. While Slay had a bit of a down year in 2019, he's a proven top 10 corner that has the skills to match up with the league best receivers and at 29, remains in the middle of his prime. 

They followed the acquisition of Slay with the signing of Nickell Robey-Coleman. While he's mostly known for being the guy who committed the missed pass interference 'heard round the world in the 2018 NFC Championship Game against the Saints, he's been a strong slot corner that has proven to be a tough, durable asset for every team he's played for (Bills, Rams). 

Adding Slay and Robey-Coleman to this group puts the slew of returning guys (Douglas, Maddox, Sidney Jones, Cr'Veon Leblanc, Jalen Mills-who is switching to safety to replace the departed Malcom Jenkins) into lower leverage roles that should suit them better and give this group their best chance of being of being good in a number of years.  

Biggest Question Mark: Miles Sanders' Workload

Even last season with the team struggling to make waves in the passing game with their injury-depleted receiving corps forcing them to run more than usual, Doug Pederson never embraced a single workhorse back. Lead back Miles Sanders may have finished with 100 more touches than #2 option Jordan Howard on the season, but Howard missed 6 games with injury and Sanders only got 15+ touches in 6 games despite appearing in every game (Note: They weren't the same 6 games).

With Howard leaving for the Dolphins in free agency, there's a belief that Pederson is going to abandon his committee backfield approach and let Sanders run wild. I'm not entirely sold on this belief. As impressive as Sanders was a dual-threat back down the stretch, Pederson has made a point to keep rotating his backs with some degree of regularity so they can stay fresh during his whole time in Philly (the previous high for touches before Sanders' 229 last season was LeGarrette Blount's 181 in 2017). He coached under Andy Reid for a long time and saw guys like Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy breakdown very quickly from their insane workloads. It seems like he doesn't want that to happen one of his backs-especially when it comes to someone like Sanders has dealt with nagging injuries throughout his college/early professional career including a hamstring issue that he's currently nursing during training camp. 

To be fair, in his prior seasons as a head coach he hasn't had a back with the complete skill set that Sanders has or a steep downgrade in the quality of backups (Boston Scott, Corey Clement, Elijah Holyfield). This combo makes the top dog ceding regular touches to his teammates feel less likely than usual, so maybe Sanders will be able to convince Pederson to break from his ways this season. 

 Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Overcoming the Early Blows They've Received Along Their Offensive Line 

A longtime strength of the Eagles is suddenly uncertainty heading into 2020 after All-Pro guard Brandon Brooks tore his Achilles during a workout in June and new starting left tackle Andre Dillard tore his biceps during a training camp practice last week. Making this unfortunate situation even more  is that their swiss army knife 6th offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitati, who has racked up 20 starts and appeared in 55 games over the past 4 seasons, left for the Lions in free agency to become their full time starting right tackle and Jason Peters-who was re-signed in June after a brief "retirement" to take over Brooks' spot at right guard-wants a raise to return to the left tackle spot he's manned for the past decade.

When it comes to addressing these issues, there's only one real direction that they can go with each of them. On the Peters front, they're going to have to pay his ass because he's the best option they have by far. Tasking either a 3rd year guy with no NFL game experience to-date (Jordan Mailata) or an exceptionally unpolished late round rookie (Prince Tega Wanogho) with a shortened offseason to protect an injury-prone quarterback in Carson Wentz is just irresponsible and even at 38 with some recent injury problems, Peters is still a damn good tackle who possesses the through understanding of this offense you want/need at such a pivotal position. 

Peters moving over to left tackle opens up a vacancy at right guard, which will be filled by either Nate Herbig, Matt Pryor or rookie Jack Driscoll. While this trio have a combined zero starts between them, there's a far less stepper learning curve at this spot and a liability on the interior is easier to cover up than one at left tackle.

What will ultimately be the primary determining factor for the fate of the Eagles offensive line in 2020 will be the play of their 3 returning starters (Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, Issac Seumalo). Based on what they've done in recent years, they should be able to deliver and help stabilize the entire unit. Kelce has been an All-Pro in 3 straight seasons, Johnson is among the most well-rounded, stable right tackles in football and Seumalo is a rising talent coming off a career-best year. If these guys can stay healthy and not fall too far below the level of play they've displayed recently, this group should be able to play enough to give this offense that still has real question marks at wide receiver and running back a chance to make plays. 

  Bottom Line:

Given the strength of Pederson's coaching and their talent at key spots (front 7, offensive line, quarterback), the Eagles appear to be in a good spot to overcome their flaws and win another division crown.

Washington Football Team

2019 Record: 3-13 (4th in NFC East)

Head Coach: Ron Rivera (1st season)

Notable Additions: CB Kendall Fuller, G Wes Schweitzer, OLB Thomas Davis

Notable Departures: T Trent Williams, CB Quinton Dunbar, CB Josh Norman 

Notable Opt-Outs: None

Biggest Reason for Excitement: Year 2 of Terry McLaurin

In an absolutely miserable 2019 season for Washington, McLaurin offered a bit of light. His electric after-catch ability and gift for fighting through tough coverage to make dazzling highlight reel catches on an offense that lacked both additional playmakers or even remotely acceptable quarterback play (Case Keenum and Dwayne Haskins both struggled mightily) never failed to be seriously impressive.

With veteran journeyman Dontrelle Inman and gadget specialist Steven Sims Jr expected to be the other starting receivers and a rushing attack that is unsettled at best (more on that in a minute), McLaurin is expected to be the focal point of the offense once again. The pairing of already being used to fighting through double coverage/top corners and the likelihood of even a miniscule improvement from Haskins -who looked overwhelmed by the NFL during his rookie season-feels like it could lead to McLaurin making a notable improvement from his borderline ROTY-worthy 2019 campaign (58 REC/919 YDS/ 7 TD's) in 14 games. Injury seems like the only thing that'll be able to stop him from clearing 1,000 YDS this season.   

Biggest Question Mark: Working Out a Running Back Rotation

The tumultuous Derrius Guice-era in Washington ended abruptly last month when he was arrested for a domestic violence incident. With Guice-who was projected to start-out of the picture-,Washington is now going to have to establish a new running back hierarchy on the fly.

Despite lacking a no-brainer top guy, they have a very interesting collection of backs to work with. Adrian Peterson can still be effective with a moderate workload at 35, the unexciting yet consistent Peyton Barber is a perfect fit to be Peterson's understudy as a between-the-tackles power back, J.D. McKissic is a solid pass-catcher that can fill the role Chris Thompson vacated in the offseason, rookie Antonio Gibson is an explosive gadget guy who turned his small workload into crazy numbers during his final year at Memphis (38 REC for 735 YDS and 8 TD's, 33 CAR for 369 YDS and 4 TD's) that could be deployed in a lot of interesting ways and Bryce Love is a fascinating wild card who was one of the most productive rushers in college football in 2017 before injuries including an ill-timed ACL tear in the Sun Bowl derailed his senior season in 2018. 

There's a lot of potential for a balanced committee in there and given Ron Rivera's love of rushing the ball and their better-than-advertised offensive line (Morgan Moses, Brandon Schreff, Chase Roullier, Wes Schweitzer, Cornelius Lucas) this group could end being decent if the right group takes the field.

Key to Reaching Their Ceiling: Ron Rivera Doing a Great Coaching Job

Washington's hiring of Rivera was an uncharacteristically savvy move for this dysfunctional and toxic organization. During his stint with the Panthers, he became known for having teams that played hard and smart no matter who took the field and that ability to consistently get the most out of his players led to him posting a 76-63-1 record including 4 playoff appearances, 3 division titles and a Super Bowl berth during his 9 seasons with the team.

Much like when he started with the Panthers in 2011, he's inheriting a roster that's low on talent and coming off a disastrous season. While this Washington team has an even weaker roster and lacks a quarterback with the dynamic athleticism of Cam Newton, there is enough sneaky upside present on this roster to believe that overachieving is possible.

       Much of this potential exists on defense, which just happens to be Rivera's specialty as a coach. The most clear area for surprise competency is their secondary, which was largely overhauled with cheap, veteran "prove it" pieces during this offseason. Kendall Fuller was the best slot corner in football in 2017 for this very team before he faded into mediocrity during his 2 year stint with the Chiefs, Ronald Darby has played exceptionally well at times in between his many IR trips, Fabian Moreau has terrific ball skills that could be turned into a weapon if he learns to be more patient with his route recognition, Sean Davis found a home at free safety during his last healthy season with the Steelers in 2018 and Landon Collins is one of the most menacing box safeties in the league when he's on his game.

Moving onto the front 7, you have a much different situation where Rivera is looking at developing a lot of young guys. Much has been made of the edge rushing duo of Montez Sweat-who racked up 7 sacks as a rookie last season and rookie Chase Young-who may just be the most hyped edge prospect since Jadevon Clowney and understandably so. Getting after the quarterback is crucial in the pass-happy modern NFL and they have two guys who have the potential to be prolific. If they add to their pass rushing move arsenal and pick up some pointers from their teammate Ryan Kerrigan-whose earned 90 sacks in 9 NFL seasons-this group should make some noise in no time at all. 

Where Rivera really needs to work his magic is with the run D. This group ranked 31st a year ago and considering that all of the divisional rivals are committed to rushing the football, it's imperative that they fix that problem. The quickest solution to this issue is getting consistent play out of the likes of Jonathan Allen and Da'Ron Payne-who have yet to capitalize on the bursts of strong play they've displayed thus far in their careers and hoping that Reuben Foster or Thomas Davis can overcome the scary obstacles in front of them (2 years away from football, being a 92 year old NFL player) to meaningfully contribute at the inside linebacker spot that often drives the quality of a run D.  

As for the offense, it's pretty much going to come down to working out a running back rotation that allows them to develop a consistent ground game. Haskins just isn't ready to be the guy who wins games by slinging the ball down field 40 times and having a rushing attack to open up opportunities for him to make high percentage throws that give him the confidence he sorely lacked as a rookie and continue to get comfortable with playing this daunting position at the pro level. 

Getting all (or even half) of these things to work  is going is to take some serious work and a little injury luck to pull off, but Rivera is definitely talented enough to make it happen.

Bottom Line:

This is a transitional season for Washington where the playoffs are a pipe dream, but a surprise overachievement is within reach. 

Projected Standings:

1.Philadelphia Eagles (10-6)

2.Dallas Cowboys (9-7)

3.Washington Football Team (5-11)

4.New York Giants (4-12)