Are Cowboys are the best team in the NFC East right now?

[Stash]

Offense

1. Completely new offense. Kevin Petullo was their Eberflus. Mannion is a Shanahan/McVay player turned coach and while he lacks the 12 year grind of Parker to get to where he is, he’s still seen as a hot young star. It will be a truly modern offense built to combat the new defenses proliferating through the league.
2. Offensive Culture - this ties into Petullo but also Brown. The eagles tried to downplay it but Brown was not a good teammate, particularly toward Hurts. Jalen created many of his own problems by being stoic, or even sullen, but Brown fed the fire publicly and the offense was constantly asked about it by the media. I saw a few comments in this thread about Hurts sucking. Don’t believe the doubts spread by the biased. Real actual insider comments from players on the team point to a focused, intense and upbeat Hurts.
3. Running game - Barkley is going to bounce back. Lane Johnson missed half the season and Dickerson was hurt all year. Barkley was also coming off an insane workload in 2024 where he had 350 carries, you could see him dragging by December. He had 280 last year. The new offense is focused on helping Barkley and the rushing offense. It’s a priority of the new designs.

Defense

1. Bigtime upgrades in defensive talent. We tend to be insular and focus on what the Cowboys are doing and assume the rest of rhe league is standing still or regressing. The Eagles have taken a very, very good defense and made it better. They look to have made significant improvements at CB and their entire defense up the middle is ridiculous. From DT to LB to S, we can’t touch it. Carter being healthy is adding an all-pro right up front an they added Greenlaw as well.
2. Continuing with the defense, they have top 3 DTs, top 3 LB, top 5 secondary, The talent is scary. We are excited about coaching changes and the addition of some unproven defensive rookies and talk about a full season of Quennin Williams as our best player. The Eagles have five Quenkin Williams level players on defense. There’s not a single defensive potion group we have that’s better than theirs and you can assume Downs and Barham have great seasons and it will still be true
3. Coaching. We have Parker. They have Fangio. One thing about Fangio is that despite being old he is relentless at making changes to he defense. He never settles and never compromises what he thinks should he done as a concession to the talent. They are so talented and he’s so good that they could run their base defense 80% of the time, playing havoc with offenses who can’t see what’s coming. If Parker is Neo in the first Matrix movie, then Fangio is Morpheus

I’m tagging @Aerolithe_Lion because he can put me in check if I’m overstating or have something blatantly wrong

but yo

I don’t want to sound condescending, but every one of the items you’ve listed for their offense is wishful thinking.

None of it is supported by facts.

Mannion has almost no coaching experience at all, much less at the coordinator level. Parker has at least coached in the league for several years.

Culture doesn’t outweigh a huge loss of talent. It’s great that Hurts is ‘happier’, but he’s throwing interceptions at an alarming rate and the offense overall is struggling.

And “Barkley is going to bounce back”? Why? Do running backs get better with age?

Do you think the line will be ‘better’ after losing their coach?

None of these claims are supported by facts.

 

[youngjerryjones]

I don’t want to sound condescending, but every one of the items you’ve listed for their offense is wishful thinking.

None of it is supported by facts.

Mannion has almost no coaching experience at all, much less at the coordinator level. Parker has at least coached in the league for several years.

Culture doesn’t outweigh a huge loss of talent. It’s great that Hurts is ‘happier’, but he’s throwing interceptions at an alarming rate and the offense overall is struggling.

And “Barkley is going to bounce back”? Why? Do running backs get better with age?

Do you think the line will be ‘better’ after losing their coach?

None of these claims are supported by facts.

We’ve been handling Saquon for years. He doesn’t have the same OL the year they won the SB and is on the path to aging and regressing himself.

 

[Stash]

We’ve been handling Saquon for years. He doesn’t have the same OL the year they won the SB and is on the path to aging and regressing himself.

And does anyone think he’ll see lighter boxes after they traded AJ Brown away?

There are no concrete signs that anything will improve offensively for the Eagles.

Apparently just some wishful thinking that a totally inexperienced coordinator is going to fix everything that’s wrong, and heal all wounds.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

That's where ur post should have stopped.

Has anyone in this zaney site ever watched NFL football before? Does anyone ever watch a season, and take what they learned to the next season and into the future, or does everyone in here just completely forget the basic things they learned every single offseason?

LOL. ITS PRESEASON !

I remember when Steve Spurrier became coach of the Deadskins and tried to win every preseason game and then flopped once the regular season started. That was enjoyable. I remember when the Philadelphia Eagles were called the dream team and didn't even make the playoffs. You can't tell anything until the season starts.

 

[youngjerryjones]

And does anyone think he’ll see lighter boxes after they traded AJ Brown away?

There are no concrete signs that anything will improve offensively for the Eagles.

Apparently just some wishful thinking that a totally inexperienced coordinator is going to fix everything that’s wrong, and heal all wounds.

People forget Lemon is a rookie. How good was CeeDee lamb year 1, 700 yards?

Lemon is going to be lucky to have half or 3/4 the production AJ brown had. They are not the same offense anymore after trading AJ away and Smith and Lemon will be under even more pressure to match the production from last year.

 

[Stash]

People forget Lemon is a rookie. How good was CeeDee lamb year 1, 700 yards?

Not to mention he’s missed the majority of offseason work. I don’t have a good feeling about that player at all.

Lemon is going to be lucky to have half or 3/4 the production AJ brown had. They are not the same offense anymore after trading AJ away and Smith and Lemon will be under even more pressure to match the production from last year.

Bingo!

They’ve signed or traded for several guys to try to fill the void.

Good luck with that!

 

[Kwyn]

I don’t want to sound condescending, but every one of the items you’ve listed for their offense is wishful thinking.

None of it is supported by facts.

Mannion has almost no coaching experience at all, much less at the coordinator level. Parker has at least coached in the league for several years.

Culture doesn’t outweigh a huge loss of talent. It’s great that Hurts is ‘happier’, but he’s throwing interceptions at an alarming rate and the offense overall is struggling.

And “Barkley is going to bounce back”? Why? Do running backs get better with age?

Do you think the line will be ‘better’ after losing their coach?

None of these claims are supported by facts.

I see. You seized on a few bits of preseason speculation and ignored the rest. Ok.

And the arguments made for the miraculous cowboys improvements are proven how? Preseason “wishful thinking” or cold hard facts?

Feel free to point out the “facts” that support the wild hype we are seeing here after two preseason games.

It’s also wild that you’re talking about Hurts throwing interceptions in practice sessions. They aren’t even in preseason games.

A little bit of preseason perspective.

• 2008 Lions: 4-0 preseason, finished 0-16.
• 2017 Browns: 4-0 preseason, finished 0-16
• 1982 Washington: 0-4 preseason. Super Bowl Champions
• 2021 Rams: 0-3 preseason. Super Bowl Champions

Preseason is not an indicator of regular season results.

The Eagles have a proven, documented, and recent history of championship success. As excited as I am about the change in vibe with the Cowboys, right now that’s all it is. A vibe. And I’m all about it.

I was an early adopter of Schottenheimer when he was made HC. I was the second person to ever float the name of Parker as a DC (@RonWashington nailed it spring of 25) and I just wrote a giant cap piece about how Jerry seems to have actually changed his strategy to match the other cash-heavy and aggressive owners.

So, it’s not like I’m Anti-Cowboy. I’m just not on board with burning our winter coats because the sun peeked out this morning.

Sometimes I wonder if we should, as fans, call ourselves the “Dallas Dunning-Krugers”. I just wish we were closer to the slope of enlightenment than we seem to be.

I’m sure it’s a moot point. All fanbases are like this.

I just don’t recall the hype being this extreme since 2017 when we were riding high on sophomore Dak/Zeke coming off that 13-3 run.