20 Questions: 8 - Have the NFCE Teams Closed the Gap

[jazzcat22]

https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/8-have-the-nfc-east-teams-closed-the-gap

Once again, this has been discussed but not recently. I believe the last time I seen a thread about it was after FA and the draft.

As consensus is, that it appears they have almost fans feel the gap has closed. To me it appears to have only because of the lack of FA moves from Dallas.
They address the additions of the other team. But no one has addressed any of the teams losses from FA.

All 4 answers has some merit it to them as to why the gap may have closed.
But the biggest concern is, did Philly really improve upon the way their season ended.

 

[Havic]

Philly has absolutely improved there is no question about that. They spent high draft picks and spent in FA to revamp their weakest link (secondary). We will see how they perform, but assuming the locker room issues are gone, they should be the favorites to win the division. O-line could be a concern.
Washington has spent a ton in FA and had a bunch of draft picks on top of that. I think DQ gets this team to 8-9 / 9-8 and will be a borderline wildcard team this year.
Giants - still too many holes and Daniel Jones is not the answer

 

[cowboyec]

2 best are still dallas/philly.
i do think washington is better.
the nyg continue to pick in the top 10...at some point that talent has to show.
but the east will still be decided between dallas/philly.

 

[JoeKing]

Philly is the biggest competition still, for the Cowboys. Washington is trying to be Cowboys clones by poaching coaches and players from the Cowboys. I don't think that strategy will work. The Giants are still the bottom feeders of the conference. Without Saquon Barkley they have only gotten worse.

 

[KingCorcoran]

All four teams have new defensive coordinators. I believe the difference between the first place and last place teams in the NFCE will be closer than last season. I don’t believe the first and last place teams in the NFCE will be the same as last season.

 

[jazzcat22]

All four teams have new defensive coordinators. I believe the difference between the first place and last place teams in the NFCE will be closer than last season. I don’t believe the first and last place teams in the NFCE will be the same as last season.

Washington and Philly also have new OC's.
Kingsbury and Moore.

Yes the NFCE will be closer this season. I still say Dallas and Philly will be going down to the wire again for the division winner.
Washington could push for 2nd place, but will fall short. NYG still has too many issues. However in 2022 they had a good run to make the playoffs. So they could be better than many think. If 2023 was just one of those weird seasons. It happens.

The gap was closed mainly because of the Cowboys lack of doing anything.
I will still give Dallas the edge. Since they are the current NFCE champs. I do this every year, what ever team won the division, I keep them as the favorites unless there was such a drastic change or injuries to the roster.

Going into the 2023 season, I had the Eagles as the favorites, with Dallas a close 2nd. This year for 2024, Dallas with Philly a close 2nd.

 

[blueblood70]

Philly is the biggest competition still, for the Cowboys. Washington is trying to be Cowboys clones by poaching coaches and players from the Cowboys. I don't think that strategy will work. The Giants are still the bottom feeders of the conference. Without Saquon Barkley they have only gotten worse.

It's probably not going to work because they picked some of our backups to make their starters they're taking players that we know very well and also the coaches are gonna run a scheme we know very well and I don't want to hear that well he knows our scheme it doesn't work out that well when you have the better player still he didn't get Michael Parsons or Trayvon diggs he didn't get tank so you are correct Washington doing this is not a blueprint for success.. If you look at it we retain just about all our starters on defense he took some of our backups which in my opinion when you still have Sam williams's next man up some of the way we approached the draft and guys that were already on this team I don't think those gaps are going to be hard to fill.

The fact that they're going to start a rookie at quarterback and then I just don't see the depth I mean they got worse on defense at the trade deadline last year they let two of their best defensive tackles go and now replace them with backups from our roster....

 

[Adreme]

Philly has absolutely improved there is no question about that. They spent high draft picks and spent in FA to revamp their weakest link (secondary). We will see how they perform, but assuming the locker room issues are gone, they should be the favorites to win the division. O-line could be a concern.
Washington has spent a ton in FA and had a bunch of draft picks on top of that. I think DQ gets this team to 8-9 / 9-8 and will be a borderline wildcard team this year.
Giants - still too many holes and Daniel Jones is not the answer

I tend to question if rookies are the key to improvement. It tells me their secondary will be better in 2 and 3 years but for this year expecting a lot from rookies tends to be how teams fold.

 

[Havic]

I tend to question if rookies are the key to improvement. It tells me their secondary will be better in 2 and 3 years but for this year expecting a lot from rookies tends to be how teams fold.

I think they are an immediate upgrade and could get better as the season progresses.

 

[KingCorcoran]

Washington and Philly also have new OC's.
Kingsbury and Moore.

Yes the NFCE will be closer this season. I still say Dallas and Philly will be going down to the wire again for the division winner.
Washington could push for 2nd place, but will fall short. NYG still has too many issues. However in 2022 they had a good run to make the playoffs. So they could be better than many think. If 2023 was just one of those weird seasons. It happens.

The gap was closed mainly because of the Cowboys lack of doing anything.
I will still give Dallas the edge. Since they are the current NFCE champs. I do this every year, what ever team won the division, I keep them as the favorites unless there was such a drastic change or injuries to the roster.

Going into the 2023 season, I had the Eagles as the favorites, with Dallas a close 2nd. This year for 2024, Dallas with Philly a close 2nd.

Prescott will have to play even better than last season to win the division again. If he can’t match last season, which was a good one, 3rd place is more likely than first place. Sans a significantly improved run game the season will be a long one.

 

[StarBoyz83]

Giants will be bad again like they have for the last 13 seasons besides 2 or 3. Washington will be an interesting team to watch the next few years.

 

[Adreme]

I think they are an immediate upgrade and could get better as the season progresses.

Rookies demonstrably are RARELY immediate improvement outside of top 15 picks. They have actually tracked this and you see a massive bump in performance for players between years 2 and 4 from the rookie year so if you are relying on rookies to be difference in your team, your team is likely going to struggle.

 

[Bobhaze]

At this point before even TC and PS games, all predictions and opinions are based on what’s on paper. Nobody will know what any of these teams are until the real games start in September. An even then it takes at least 6-8 games to truly know what we have.

On paper, if I take the fan glasses off to try and be objective, the Cowboys cannot be considered “better” than last year. Maybe that changes during the regular season if several players develop. But that’s certainly an unknown.

Philly and Wash - on paper - both appear to have improved. Again, it’s all speculation at this point.

 

[Havic]

Rookies demonstrably are RARELY immediate improvement outside of top 15 picks. They have actually tracked this and you see a massive bump in performance for players between years 2 and 4 from the rookie year so if you are relying on rookies to be difference in your team, your team is likely going to struggle.

We will see how the season goes but I do think they will be better. Dallas better have a stellar draft cause we did very little in FA.

 

[plasticman]

I recall that, just prior to the 2023 season, many claimed that the rest of the division had gained on the Cowboys with impressive free agent signings, a superior draft, management changes and even the expulsion of an owner.

Washington went from 8-8 in 2022 to 4-13 in 2023 while the Giants went from 9-7 as a wildcard team in 2022 to 6-11 in 2023.

Meanwhile, the 2022 division champion Eagles went from being the NFC #1 seed in the playoffs with a 14-3 record to a 11-6 record in 2023 that culminated in only one single victory after November with 5 losses and a quick wildcard round exit in the playoffs

I suppose "many" will be right in some future season, but I don't think it will be this one.

 

[Creeper]

The question is, did Dallas close the gap between themselves with the rest of the division by doing nothing in the offseason to improve? I expect every team to try to make improvements in the offseason. The Commanders, Giants and Eagles all did that. They will be better than what they were last year. The Cowboys lost a bunch of free agents, and didn't really replace them with comparable players. The Cowboys will be worse - and with less depth, than they were last year. And remember, it took a startling, and monumental collapse by the Eagles for Dallas to take the division crown anyway.

For Dallas to repeat it would take so many things to go perfectly for them and for things to go wrong with the Eagles. Of course the Eagles entire season revolves around Jalen Hurts.

The Giants in the meantime, have accumulated a lot of good players on defense. In fact, when you compare the defensive fronts of the 4 NFE East teams, the Cowboys lag so far behind the other 3 teams it is almost comical. Of course, we are hoping our LBs will make the difference. I think that is folly, but I can be open minded. The Eagles and Commanders both have good defensive fronts. Late in the season, this could be the difference.

I think the Cowboys will struggle to win 8 games this year. In the meantime, I think the Eagles have 12 wins in them easily.