Honestly this year is even more blurry then our past 3 8-8 seasons. I do think we've gotten better, but a lot of that depends on the play of Romo as well. If Romo can be his normal self then I think we a great shot at winning the division, but if he's injured any then it looks very bleak.
It's a weird year. While I think we've improved ourself relative to where we were at the end of last season defensively, I liked our chances a lot better going into the season last season than I do this season. I was a high on Crawford, Claiborne and Carter, and we had Lee, Hatcher, Ware, and Spencer on the roster and Ratliff coming back.
This season, we've got a lot less potentially very good talent. I do think we're deeper, everywhere. We're missing a number of 7, 8, 9s, and we've replaced them two-for one with young, hungry 4, 5, 6s. Some of the young guys might get a lot better over the course of the season. We've probably got the personnel (and the redundancy) to fit what we want to do defensively better. But we've lost a lot of talent.
Where last season I'd have started off saying Dallas or WAS were the favorites to win the East, this year, I think we're a definite underdog. And that stinks, because I actually think we're really on the right track right now. We're just running out of it very quickly.
I do like the indications we're seeing a bit here recently (read Mo's comments on DC.com today, too) that the defense seems to be taking an us-v-the-world mentality. I like (don't love, but like) Marinelli for DC and think he's an upgrade over Kiffin at this point by a wide margin. I could see a scenario where we jump up and surprise people this season--that's the thing about the NFL...it really does happen with some regularity. I'm just not counting on it. I'm hoping we can stay close enough to compete for the East, and that we get better and better as the season goes on and hit the playoffs hot enough to have a puncher's chance to do some real damage. I'm not predicting that, though.
