Dallas Cowboys
2024 Record: 7-10 (3rd in NFC East)
Head Coach: Brian Schottenheimer (1st season)
Notable Additions: WR George Pickens, DE Dante Fowler Jr., RB Javonte Williams
Notable Departures: G Zack Martin (retired), DE DeMarcus Lawrence, RB Rico Dowdle
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Adding George Pickens
One of the more shocking transactions that happened during this pretty wild offseason was the Steelers trading George Pickens to the Cowboys a mere 2 months after they acquired DK Metcalf from the Seahawks. While Pickens requesting the trade himself makes it a little less shocking given how vocal he was with his frustrations with the Steelers low wattage passing attack over the past 3 seasons, giving up on a 24-year-old WR that's going into the final year of his rookie deal and has shown insane flashes of production despite being hamstrung by the brutal combo of poor QB play and playing in a run-first system remains a shocking choice.
Pickens' arrival in Dallas is a godsend, particularly since the deal happened a week after the draft had concluded. Besides Dak Prescott going down with a hamstring tear in early November, the Cowboys biggest offensive problem last season came from the lack of having a secondary receiving threat on their roster. Opposing defenses didn't have to worry at all about anyone besides CeeDee Lamb hurting them and that granted them the luxury of focusing their efforts on trying to slowdown the 3x All-Pro WR (those efforts proved to be a mixed bag as he only scored 6 TD's and averaged a career-low 11.8 YPC, but still was able to nab 101 receptions and post 1,194 YDS for the season in just 15 games).
That luxury disappears instantly with Pickens in the mix. When he's gotten the opportunity to make plays downfield, he's proven to be an elite vertical threat whose equally adept at blowing past DB's and reeling in absurd contested catches with ease. Putting somebody with those skills alongside a do-it-all weapon in Lamb should open up the Cowboys passing attack in a way that we haven't seen since Dez Bryant and Jason Witten were wreaking havoc together 10-12 years ago. Pickens' ability to stay locked in for 17 games on a team that could be pretty shit this year or remain in the fold beyond this season are different questions entirely, but for right now, the prospects of him joining this team is providing Cowboys with a much-needed reason to celebrate.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Hiring Brian Schottenheimer as HC
Following a relatively brief yet deeply bizarre holding period once their season wrapped up where it looked like he could be coming back against all odds, Mike McCarthy was officially let go as Cowboys on January 13 after 5 seasons with the team. McCarthy's tenure was an uneven one as the team was generally good (they went 12-5 for 3 consecutive seasons from 2021-23) in the regular season, but were ultimately defined by their ugly playoff flameouts including the infamous 48-32 blowout loss they were handed to at home by a young Packers squad in 2023 and the hilarious clock mismanagement on the final drive that caused them to lose 19-12 to the 49ers in 2021. Despite being a marquee franchise with some high-end talent on their roster, the Cowboys HC gig was viewed around the league as one of the least attractive openings in the league during this hiring cycle. Why would that be? Simple: Working for Jerry Jones is one of the most thankless, miserable gigs in the league. Nobody who values the opportunity to establish their own culture or have input on personnel decisions would be dumb enough to go to a team that is run by an egomaniacal clown that refuses to relinquish even a fraction of the total control he has over the operation.
Through a combination of lack of interest from any candidate worth a damn and Jerry's desire to have a puppet leading his team, the Cowboy elected to promote McCarthy's OC Brian Schottenheimer to HC. Quite frankly, this was a development that was shocking even by Jerry's standards. Schottenheimer wouldn't have been able to land an interview for any of the other 31 HC jobs in the league, let alone be in serious consideration for one. The 51-year-old is the epitome of a journeyman assistant who has had little in the way of real success (including 2023 where he didn't call the plays for the Cowboys, Schottenheimer has overseen 5 top 10 scoring offenses in 14 seasons as an OC) and has earned basically zero respect around the league for his coaching ability despite being the son of one of the most successful coaches in NFL history. His understanding of gamescript is as bad you'll as see from a guy who continues to land playcalling gigs (his love for ill-timed HB dives is unmatched in NFL history) and not a single soul has uttered anything positive about his leadership ability, HC potential, etc. over his 20+ years in the pros. Jerry hasn't been this brazen in hiring a bagman HC since Dave Campo 26 years ago and anybody who cares about this team has to be infuriated to watch Jerry's God complex continue to get worse as he ages.
Key to Reaching Ceiling: Bounceback Season from Dak Prescott
Even before he suffered his aforementioned season-ending hamstring tear in Week 9, Prescott was in an uncharacteristic funk during 2024. Perhaps it was complacency setting in after securing his $240 million megadeal last offseason or he was just done in by the comparatively poor rushing game, offensive line and pass-catching arsenal he had to work with, but Prescott hasn't looked as sloppy or uncomfortable playing QB as he did in his 8 starts last year since his sophomore season all the way back in 2017.
While he's not getting a complete reset considering that Schottenheimer and his QB coach Steve Shmiko were with the club last year albeit in different roles, the new regime still presents him with an opportunity to reset after a difficult season. His pass-catching situation should be better with Pickens joining the team and Jalen Tolbert-who quietly nabbed 7 TD's last year-slotting into a more natural WR3 role, the continuity on the O-line should be better this year as rookie right guard Tyler Booker is the only new starter in the bunch (center Cooper Beebe, left guard Tyler Smith, right tackle Terrence Steele and left tackle Tyler Guyton-who is coming off an awful rookie campaign-make up the returning group) and the RB committee (Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, Deuce Vaughn, rookie Jaydon Blue) could be steady enough if the run blocking maintains the solid groove they settled into during the final 7 or 8 games of last year when the now-departed Rico Dowdle became a fantasy darling with his efficient high-volume running. Nobody would mistake this for a slam dunk situation, but Prescott just turned 32 and is only 2 years removed from a career-best campaign. He's capable of getting back on track and he's absolutely good enough to will this team to more wins than people are projecting for them right now if he's successful in his bounceback efforts.
Bottom Line:
The odds of this team improving with Brian Schottenheimer at the helm are about as high as their playoff win rate from 1996-present.
New York Giants
2024 Record: 3-14 (4th in NFC East)
Head Coach: Brian Daboll (4th season)
Notable Additions: S Jevon Holland, CB Paulson Adebo, QB Russell Wilson
Notable Departures: OLB Azeez Ojulari, QB Drew Lock, S Jason Pinnock
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Drafting Abdul Carter
Landing the 3rd overall pick in the draft put the Giants in a bit of a precarious position as it took them out of the running to land the top QB prospect Cam Ward and reigning Heisman Winner/aspiring two-way player Travis Hunter. Instead of forcing themselves to draft a lesser prospect at a bigger position of need, the Giants went the best player available route with their selection of edge rusher Abdul Carter. There's no arguing that Carter was a luxury pick as the Giants already have a high-paid alpha pass-rusher in Brian Burns and erratic but relatively productive #2 guy in Kayvon Thibodeaux-who was selected #5 overall in the 2022 draft-on their roster. However, there's no such thing as having too many pass rushers in the fold and quite frankly, Carter might end being up the best of the bunch in short order. The Penn State product has one of the highest motors and most complete arsenals of pass-rushing moves I've seen on tape in recent years, and it would shock me if he didn't turn into a productive pro player. Things are still looking pretty bleak for the Giants right now, but if Carter can make the same type of impact that Malik Nabers made last season, they might actually start trending in the right direction pretty soon.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Whatever the Hell is Going on at QB
Look, I'm not going to come out here and say that the Giants QB situation isn't better heading into 2025 than it was in 2024. The dream team of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle put forth roughly 2 good performances (unfortunately for the Giants, one of them came from Lock in a Week 17 upset win over the Colts that cost them the #1 pick in the draft) between them as the G-Men had one of the most lethargic offenses in the NFL (31st in scoring, 28th in passing YDS, 23rd in rushing YDS, 32nd in redzone, 27th in 3D%) for a second straight season.
What awaits them in 2025 is only slightly less nauseating than last year's collection of living, breathing gridiron memes. In an expected move, they named Russell Wilson their Week 1 starter once camp opened last week. Everybody knows how Wilson-who turns 37 in November-pit stop with the Steelers went last year as the vet got off to a hot start leading the team to a 6-1 record after taking over for Justin Fields in Week 7, then proceeded to fade very quickly by losing his final 5 games as the Steelers starter- which concluded with an absolute shellacking at the hands of the Ravens in the Wild Card Round. The reality is that Wilson in his currently athletically compromised form requires a strong rushing game and great blocking upfront to be a respectable game manager. Barring several miracles including the emergence of a solid RB and Andrew Thomas being able to stay healthy for a whole season, there's just no way that the Giants as currently constructed will be able to provide those nonnegotiable conditions for him.
Waiting behind Wilson in the case of injury or poor performance are a pair of uh, shaky options. The first of the bunch is infamous vet Jameis Winston. We had been deprived of the full glory of the Jameis Winston experience since he left the Bucs following the 2019 season but ended up being blessed with the unexpected return of one of the funniest gunslingers in NFL history in Cleveland last season as he appeared in 12 games and logged 7 starts in relief of injured sex pest Deshaun Watson. This sample size was large enough to confirm that Winston's cartoonish recklessness hasn't improved at all with age and enlisting him as anything other than a short-term band aid on a team that has little in the way of talent is a horrible idea.
The second unappealing QB on the depth chart is rookie Jaxson Dart, who the Giants traded back into the end of the 1st round to select after electing to not overdraft a QB at #3. Even before the public became aware of how much Sheduer Sanders' draft stock had tanked, Dart had become a surefire top 3 selection in this year's weak QB class on account of his buzzy workouts during the predraft process. Regardless of how anybody feels about Dart as a prospect (personally, I think he's a completely unremarkable prospect whose ceiling is Gardner Minshew or Case Keenum), this kid is way too raw to seriously consider throwing him out there in any non-emergency situation this year.
The Giants brass have basically put together a buffet full of Lunchables, expired filet mignon and unripe bananas at QB and are just hoping that they can cook up something that's edible enough to keep their jobs for another year. Having any faith in their ability to pull it off would be unwise.
Key to Reaching Ceiling: Brian Daboll Repeating the Coaching Effort He Put Forth in 2022:
The sole reason that Brian Daboll is returning as Giants head coach for a 4th season in 2025 is because of what he did in 2022. For those who have forgotten, he inherited a hopeless roster from everybody's favorite overly arrogant Bill Belichick protege Joe Judge and perpetually concussed executive Dave Gettleman and led them to a 9-7-1 season that included a playoff berth/upset Wild Card Round victory over the Vikings. It was genuinely one of the best coaching jobs we've seen in recent years, and he should've been handed 4 additional Coach of the Year awards for his efforts.
Since that magical season, Daboll has gone a dismal 9-25. To be fair to him, his team's failures over the past 2 seasons largely aren't his fault as they've been hamstrung by injuries, horrendous QB play and having one of the worst rosters in the league. As I've outlined above, things aren't looking much better in 2025. Bringing in slightly less shitty QB's, a talented young safety in Jevon Holland and a solid-ish veteran corner in Paulson Adebo isn't going to magically solve the staggering lack of talent this team has on their roster.
What this team is going to need to shock the world this year is for Daboll to pull another coaching miracle out of his ass. The path to doing so is probably going to involve the QB's playing just well enough to allow Malik Nabers to go ballistic (which is possible since he somehow managed to put up 109 REC/1,204 YDS/7 TD's in 15 games last year), the development of a semi-competent rushing attack and Shane Bowen's defense further tightening up the clamps after improving a bit from 2023 to 2024 (26th to 21st in scoring D). If he's able to pull it off, his stock as a real deal NFL head coach will be solidified.
Bottom Line:
While they'll almost certainly be better than they were last year, the Giants are still far too talent-deficient to truly believe in.
Philadelphia Eagles
2024 Record: 14-3 (1st in NFC East)
Head Coach: Nick Siranni (5th season)
Notable Additions: OLB Azeez Ojulari, CB Adoree' Jackson, RB A.J. Dillon
Notable Departures: OLB Josh Sweat, S C.J. Gardner-Johnson, OLB Brandon Graham (retired)
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Being the Defending Super Bowl Champions Playing in an Unimposing Division and a Conference That Appears to Be Weaker Than It Was a Season Ago
Everything is coming up Eagles right now. Defending Super Bowl champs? Check. Most of the key pieces from last year's team coming back in 2025? Check. NFC East still very winnable? Check. Competiton level in the NFC on the whole regressing, namely due to the personnel losses that the Lions, Vikings and 49ers endured this offseason? Check. This is all a roundabout way to say that the Eagles are in great shape heading into this year and their opponents should be using whatever tools at their disposal to hope that it somehow manages to implode.
Biggest Reason for Concern: Being Able to Adequately Replace All of the Talent They Lost in the Offseason
While they fared very well overall namely due to the contract status of guys like A.J. Brown, Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts and the youth of key players like Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Jalen Carter, the Eagles still had to endure some painful departures this offseason. When it was all said and done, they lost a grand total of 6 starters (Josh Sweat-free agency, Mekhi Becton-free agency, Milton Williams-free agency, Brandon Graham-retirement, Darius Slay-released, C.J. Gardner-Johnson-trade) from last year's team. This changeover creates 2 problems as it eats into their league-best depth at key positions like DE/DT and corner and thrusts unproven players (the new starters are as follows: DE: Moro Ojomo OLB: Jalyx Hunt, Nolan Smith S: Sydney Brown CB: Keelee Ringo LG: Tyler Steen) into starting roles. Given the Eagles history of strong drafting and the trust they have in the coaching staff they have right now to develop talent-especially on defense with Vic Fangio, there's every reason to be confident that this group will retain its winning edge with the overhauled lineup. However, trepidation is going to inevitably sit in when you're looking at a group of 6 largely untested players with a combined total of 26 starts between them stepping into high leverage roles on a team that's looking to win another title.
Key to Reaching Ceiling: Remaining Healthy
Remaining healthy is an obvious and boring reason to provide here, but it's really the only thing the Eagles need to fall into place to push for another title. This is a well-coached team with a roster that is constructed in a way where they can control the clock with the run game, do damage at every level of the passing game and a defense that is capable of stifling opposing offenses with their combination of physicality, athleticism and discipline. The only way a unicorn-ish teams like this can get tripped up is through sudden mass regression of their roster or an injury bug takes the majority of their top performers off the field. The latter is clearly far more feasible than the former, especially given the fact that they have some guys who are no stranger to getting banged up (Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, Lane Johnson, Nakobe Dean, Dallas Goedert). Last year's title run was pretty kind to them on the whole, which lessens the odds of happening it again, but whackier things have happened in this league than a team getting good injury luck in back-to-back years.
Bottom Line:
The Eagles are as well-positioned as any team in recent memory to repeat as Super Bowl champions and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they were able to pull this very difficult feat off.
Washington Commanders
2024 Record: 12-5 (2nd in NFC East)
Head Coach: Dan Quinn (2nd season)
Notable Additions: T Laremy Tunsil, WR Deebo Samuel, CB Jonathan Jones
Notable Departures: DT/DE Jonathan Allen, S Jeremy Chinn, DE Dante Fowler Jr.
Biggest Reason for Excitement: Having Continuity on the Coaching Staff in Dan Quinn's 2nd Season
The Commanders are experiencing the rare gift of being an NFL team that avoid having their coaching staff ransacked after a great season. While DC Joe Whitt returning isn't much of a surprise as his group finished in the middle of the pack on the whole and had one of the worst run defenses in football (30th), OC Kliff Kingsbury being back very much is. The ex-Cardinals HC underwent quite the image rehabilitation with his role in Jayden Daniels' phenomenal rookie campaign and despite being buzzed about as a hot candidate for this cycle in the latter stages of the regular season, never appeared to be in real danger of leaving. Having a team coming off an NFC Championship appearance be able to avoid having either side of the ball spend their offseason learning a new system or verbiage is a huge boost, especially given their relative youth on the whole, which in turn gives them a golden opportunity to build upon their success from 2024 in 2025
Biggest Reason for Concern: Terry McLaurin's Contract Status
A bit of a surprise occurred on Sunday when Terry McLaurin ended his holdout and arrived at Commanders camp. The bad news is that he immediately landed on the PUP list with an ankle injury. Is this a phantom injury to sit out camp without receiving any further financial penalties? Possibly! Regardless of the validity of the injury, the contract dispute that caused him to miss the start of camp isn't over and that's bad news for the Commanders.
McLaurin-who turns 30 in September-is entering the final season of a 3-year/$71 mil extension he signed back in July 2022. Naturally, after putting up a career-high 13 TD's and being the undisputed WR1 for an upstart Commanders team, he's seeking a raise. On paper, McLaurin has all the leverage in the world. He's been a leader in their locker room since he came into the league in 2019 and following the departures of key secondary pass-catchers Dyami Brown and Olamide Zaccheaus in free agency, the remainder of the Commanders WR group consists of their talented but oft-injured new acquisition Deebo Samuel, returning journeyman Noah Brown, 2nd year pro Luke McCaffery and the recently unretired Michael Gallup. The Commanders absolutely cannot afford to have McLaurin on the sidelines come Week 1 and every day that passes without him landing a new deal and returning to practice to shake the rust off, that risk goes up. The brass in Washington needs to be very careful with how they handle this situation as it could very well play a huge role in dictating how this team fares this season.
Key to Reaching Ceiling: Not Letting Last Season's Surprising Success Get to Their Heads
Not even the most bullish Jayden Daniels and Dan Quinn supporters could have anticipated what the Commanders pulled off in 2024. Winning 12 games and making it to an NFC Championship game as a team led by a new HC and rookie QB isn't supposed to be possible in a league as brutally competitive as the NFL and yet, it happened. The Commanders being among the league's bottom feeders for the past 30+ years made it even more impressive.
Of course, a big part of what made the Commanders such a force last year is that there was absolutely zero pressure on them to win games, and the absence of pressure allowed them to play free nearly every week. The price they now have to pay for their unexpected success is the burden of high expectations. Fair or not, they set a standard with that run last year that they're now going to have live up to for the foreseeable future. For every team like the 2018-present Chiefs and post-2001 Patriots that answered the bell after going on deep runs far earlier than expected, there are teams like the Bengals (2022-present) and most painfully, the Jaguars (2018-2020) who have failed to replicate the magic of runs that appeared they could be the start of something special.
Beyond the uncontrollable shit like injuries and officiating costing them games, the biggest thing that will dictate what side of the coin this Commanders team end up on is the mindset they maintain. There's a real argument to be made that Jaguars team from the late 2010's/early 2020's ultimately got done in by letting all the success from their 2017 season get to their heads and losing their edge as a result. Their focus and grit never returned and by the time the 2021season rolled around, barely any of the players from the team that made it to the AFC Championship Game were still on the roster.
The establishment of the Commanders mindset will be dictated at the top by Quinn and Daniels. Quinn is kind of a coin flip on this matter as the Falcons weren't a complete embarrassment following their infamous Super Bowl collapse against the Patriots (in fact, they went 10-6 and won a playoff game the following season), but they also never quite returned to the level of play they displayed prior to that historic loss during his final 4 seasons with the team. Daniels, on the other hand, is a complete question mark. His leadership skills seem strong and at 24 going on 25, his maturity level is higher than most QB's entering their 2nd NFL season. That being said, he's still very green when it comes to the pro game and there's no telling how he'll respond to achieving the great success that he did a year ago. If I had to venture a guess, I think they'll avoid the Jaguars situation, but a scenario like the one the Bengals have been in the past few years feels very feasible for this bunch that has some great talent but plenty of exploitable holes on both sides of the ball.
Bottom Line:
While I'm expecting a clear regression from a year ago, they should still be good enough to be in the mix for the playoffs once again.
Predicted Standings:
1.Philadelphia Eagles (12-5)
2.Washington Commanders (10-7)
3.Dallas Cowboys (6-11)
4.New York Giants (5-12)
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