The NFC East problem

doomsday9084

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Dallas just went 6-0 versus the East and 6-6 versus the rest of the NFL.

Let's go back a few years:
2020: 2-4, 4-10
2019: 5-1, 3-7
2018: 5-1, 6-6 (1-1 in playoffs)
2017: 5-1, 4-6

Total last 5 years: 23-7 in division, 23-35 out of division

Due to retirements and coaching changes, the NFC East has been poor for years. Dallas has spent that time feasting off the division and being mediocre to bad outside the division. The end result is that Dallas gets overrated. In this era of a salary cap, that creates multiple issues:
- Players get overrated, which in turn means they leave as free agents or get overpaid
- The out of division schedule gets harder because Dallas placed better than they should have
- The draft picks just get a little bit worse because Dallas is picking later than they should

Not sure what to do about this. In the short term its a benefit to have an easy division but over the long term in a competitive league, it really drains the team which prevents deep playoff runs.

The only thing I would suggest for fans is to look at that in division / out of division record and be realistic about expectations so you aren't let down.
 

Swagger

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It is a horrific division enabling players, especially the QB of the Dallas Cowboys, to feast upon and jazz up their individual stats. The 49ers are a good team with a good defense (albeit most of the front seven on their D were injured by the second half) and it was essentially men against boys last night. They manhandled us on both sides of the ball. Too much style and too little substance. Players are more concerned with getting their stats, being paid and generally inflating their ego to an unjustified level. Unfortunately this is championed by the supposed leader with all the intangibles, Dak Prescott, who just praised fans for throwing objects at officials to detract from his own lack of understanding of the game by not just handing the ball to the official which would have very likely given enough time to spike the ball before the final whistle. What hope do we have...
 

NoLuv4Jerry

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doomsday9084 said:
Dallas just went 6-0 versus the East and 6-6 versus the rest of the NFL.

Let's go back a few years:
2020: 2-4, 4-10
2019: 5-1, 3-7
2018: 5-1, 6-6 (1-1 in playoffs)
2017: 5-1, 4-6

Total last 5 years: 23-7 in division, 23-35 out of division

Due to retirements and coaching changes, the NFC East has been poor for years. Dallas has spent that time feasting off the division and being mediocre to bad outside the division. The end result is that Dallas gets overrated. In this era of a salary cap, that creates multiple issues:
- Players get overrated, which in turn means they leave as free agents or get overpaid
- The out of division schedule gets harder because Dallas placed better than they should have
- The draft picks just get a little bit worse because Dallas is picking later than they should

Not sure what to do about this. In the short term its a benefit to have an easy division but over the long term in a competitive league, it really drains the team which prevents deep playoff runs.

The only thing I would suggest for fans is to look at that in division / out of division record and be realistic about expectations so you aren't let down.
Click to expand...
Say it louder for the people in the back

Here is the problem with this. It is easy for the fan to get sucked in. I literally was watching the game with my best friend...and while we were getting are azz kicked...he kept insisting we were more talented than the 49ers. Listen...if we played them 10 times....they would win 7. We are NOT better than them

But the Front office, coaches and players do this for a living. We should expect them to look at this team through a different lens. But when the architect of the franchise...the carnival barker...is a hype man...is a salesman....it sets the tone for the ENTIRE organization. And everyone believes they are as good as their paycheck! Heck, Jerry thinks he is as good as his net worth. They confuse a good bank account....for good football!!!!!!!!

And it does not help when the NFL recognizes him with a Gold jacket. Once that happened...that was all the validation he needed to believe he was doing something right.
 
Beast_from_East

Beast_from_East

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doomsday9084 said:
Dallas just went 6-0 versus the East and 6-6 versus the rest of the NFL.

Let's go back a few years:
2020: 2-4, 4-10
2019: 5-1, 3-7
2018: 5-1, 6-6 (1-1 in playoffs)
2017: 5-1, 4-6

Total last 5 years: 23-7 in division, 23-35 out of division

Due to retirements and coaching changes, the NFC East has been poor for years. Dallas has spent that time feasting off the division and being mediocre to bad outside the division. The end result is that Dallas gets overrated. In this era of a salary cap, that creates multiple issues:
- Players get overrated, which in turn means they leave as free agents or get overpaid
- The out of division schedule gets harder because Dallas placed better than they should have
- The draft picks just get a little bit worse because Dallas is picking later than they should

Not sure what to do about this. In the short term its a benefit to have an easy division but over the long term in a competitive league, it really drains the team which prevents deep playoff runs.

The only thing I would suggest for fans is to look at that in division / out of division record and be realistic about expectations so you aren't let down.
Click to expand...

The other problem is that nobody repeats as division champs, so while we are 23-7 in the division over the last 5 seasons we have not repeated as champs one single time. That also means next season we lose division, probably to Philly.
 

OriginalNameGuy

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Meh. Even when the Giants or Eagles are above average to elite the results are the same for us. The Patriots and Packers are the prime example of flourishing in middling divisions. I know your point though. We can look at the out of division games as an indicator for how good the team truly is until the East shows signs of improving.
 
Flamma

Flamma

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The Patriots feasted in a garbage division for two decades. They didn't seem to mind.

People need to stop regurgitation stats. It doesn't paint a full picture. But it often blinds people to the reality.
 
Zman5

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As sad as the NFLE has been, it's the only NFC division with two SB winners last 10 years.
 

baltcowboy

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doomsday9084 said:
Dallas just went 6-0 versus the East and 6-6 versus the rest of the NFL.

Let's go back a few years:
2020: 2-4, 4-10
2019: 5-1, 3-7
2018: 5-1, 6-6 (1-1 in playoffs)
2017: 5-1, 4-6

Total last 5 years: 23-7 in division, 23-35 out of division

Due to retirements and coaching changes, the NFC East has been poor for years. Dallas has spent that time feasting off the division and being mediocre to bad outside the division. The end result is that Dallas gets overrated. In this era of a salary cap, that creates multiple issues:
- Players get overrated, which in turn means they leave as free agents or get overpaid
- The out of division schedule gets harder because Dallas placed better than they should have
- The draft picks just get a little bit worse because Dallas is picking later than they should

Not sure what to do about this. In the short term its a benefit to have an easy division but over the long term in a competitive league, it really drains the team which prevents deep playoff runs.

The only thing I would suggest for fans is to look at that in division / out of division record and be realistic about expectations so you aren't let down.
Click to expand...
We need to bring in players to stop the Mahomes, Allen, Rodgers, Burrow, ect. It is about the quarterback. Dak is not it. Now we need to find away to play keep away. We need to make the defense elite and we need to improve are running game. I think we can do that in the offseason.
 
b0xZZ

b0xZZ

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Flamma said:
The Patriots feasted in a garbage division for two decades. They didn't seem to mind.

People need to stop regurgitation stats. It doesn't paint a full picture. But it often blinds people to the reality.
Click to expand...

The Patriots also had Tom Brady who is arguably the best QB of all time so it’s not an entirely accurate comparison. Theo they example you could use is Green Bay and again, Aaron Rodgers is one of the best all time.

We clearly have nothing even remotely like that in Dak
 
pancakeman

pancakeman

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Flamma said:
The Patriots feasted in a garbage division for two decades. They didn't seem to mind.

People need to stop regurgitation stats. It doesn't paint a full picture. But it often blinds people to the reality.
Click to expand...
This wasn't regurgitating stats, it was one of the best argued analyses I've seen on this site lately.
And the point is not a team can't be good if they're in a bad division. It's that a mediocre team can LOOK good if they're in a bad division, and that has consequences that conspire to keep them mediocre.
A relevant point with the Patriots would require looking at their non-division record over the years of their dominance. I bet it's north of .500!
 
Flamma

Flamma

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pancakeman said:
This wasn't regurgitating stats, it was one of the best argued analyses I've seen on this site lately.
And the point is not a team can't be good if they're in a bad division. It's that a mediocre team can LOOK good if they're in a bad division, and that has consequences that conspire to keep them mediocre.
A relevant point with the Patriots would require looking at their non-division record over the years of their dominance. I bet it's north of .500!
Click to expand...

Agreed. But anyone that pays attention should know better. Because we see what happens in out of division games. The real consequence I guess would be the draft picks. I wasn't that upset over this loss because I did not think we were going to win, and that's largely based on what I saw in out of division games. If I can see it, the people whos job is to see this, should easily see it as well. I guess one could also make the argument that Dak got paid based on looking better than he actually is due to playing crap teams.
 
Flamma

Flamma

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b0xZZ said:
The Patriots also had Tom Brady who is arguably the best QB of all time so it’s not an entirely accurate comparison. Theo they example you could use is Green Bay and again, Aaron Rodgers is one of the best all time.

We clearly have nothing even remotely like that in Dak
Click to expand...

No, we don't have that in Dak. Nor do 29 other teams.
 

doomsday9084

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pancakeman said:
This wasn't regurgitating stats, it was one of the best argued analyses I've seen on this site lately.
And the point is not a team can't be good if they're in a bad division. It's that a mediocre team can LOOK good if they're in a bad division, and that has consequences that conspire to keep them mediocre.
A relevant point with the Patriots would require looking at their non-division record over the years of their dominance. I bet it's north of .500!
Click to expand...

Thank you.

As for the Patriots, they really didn't fall into the cheese eating trap that Jerry does. New England has frequently jettisoned players before overpaying them. If anything, they are the other side of this coin where they trade players for more than their value in draft picks and then develop those picks into overhyped role players . . . and trade them.

To a large degree, its the NFCE being weak recently combined with Jerry's propensity to overestimate the team. Its a feedback loop that is harming the team.
 
The Natural

The Natural

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From now on as fans we need to be evaluating this team based on the 11 non-division games. People talking about the Patriots, the Patriots were not playing .500 ball outside of their division like this team was.
 
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