Hostile;2817745 said:
I think Philly's window of opportunity is coming to a close. They lost the emotional leader of their Defense and probably the best DC in the NFL. Remember when we lost Woodson? Similar impact expected in Philly. McNabb finally has WRs to throw to but their best weapon is Westbrook and once again he seems delicate. The window isn't closed, but it is moving in that direction for them.
Our window is still opening up. The Giants window is still opening up. I think the division will be between Dallas and the Giants this year. Young teams with emerging QBs and solid casts around them.
The Commanders? They can't find the window though I do applaud their off season focus on D. I just don't fear mediocre QB led teams.
I agree with this. The loss of Dawkins is going to impact them far more than most Eagles fans are willing to admit. A lot are acting like he meant basically nothing to their team.
VACowboy;2817775 said:
I think the Cowboys' 2009 success depends on the OL.
Exactly. Especially late in the year. Add in some better special teams play and that is the two areas that I think hurt us the most last year.
Phoenix-Talon;2817779 said:
One Eagles Fan Perspective: each new regular season brings with it new hope for each team to do better than the previous year. Regardless of How you see things or what your twist on any given team is, right now we can only draw our conclusions on draft/trade acquisitions.
That said, specifically I think the Dallas Cowboys will be just a strong and just a competitive as they have always been against the Eagles and all of their NFC-East rivals. I can't speak for other Eagle fans, but I personally believe that the 44-6 beating last year is In the record books as the worst defeat the Cowboys ever had ...but has absolutely nothing to do with the2 or 3 games they meet with the Eagles in 2009.
Since I'm not a Cowboys fan, I only know a very few things that may impact the team this coming season. However, here are some things that will have an impact on the next Eagles in 2009:
> Brian Dawkins departure medium impact
> "If" Jim Johnson (Eagles Def. Coord.) is out ...significant impact
> Successfull recovery of Brian Westbrook
Note: The Eagles are an improved team from last year.
Any way you spin it, it's going to be a back alley dog fight. I'm looking forward to the games between our two teams. I think it will live up to the traditional meetings between the two teams.
Phoenix-Talon
Yet another Eagles fan who is attempting to minimize the importance of Dawkins to their team. I think you guys are going to find out just how hard it is to replace a leader, and playmaker, at the safety position and just how much it screws up your overall defense. It's not fun and it's not pretty.
The loss of your DC, most likely, will also be devastating to that defense. They're going to have a very rough year defensively. The good thing for them though is that their defense won't have to carry the team the same it used to cause they at least gave DMac some weapons on offense now.
Phoenix-Talon;2818409 said:
Earlier, I mentioned some of the 2009 Eagles that were released and the impact those players may/may not have in the upcoming 2009 regular season. I additionally mentioned that since I was not a Cowboys fan, I couldn't expound on 2009 Dallas Cowboy losses. Did someone want to comment on the 2009 Cowboy losses/releases and the impact those losses could create?
Here are some of the losses I think may have a detrimental Impact on the Cowboys in 2009:
Ellis - your call
Pacman Jones - impact on secondary
Roy Williams - impact on secondary
Anthony Henry - your call
Terrell Owens - your call
Others - ????
Remain objective.
PT
Ellis - Replaced by Spencer. The production will be at least equal, if not greater.
Adam Jones - Missed several games last year cause of suspensions and injury. He has zero impact on our secondary. Easily replaced by Jenkins or Scandrick.
Henry - Easily replaced by Jenkins or Scandrick. Those two younger guys are instant upgrades over those two lost CBs.
Roy Williams - We replaced him with Gerald which will, at worst, be an equal but having watched Gerald a couple times last year for the Jags I think it was pretty clear he's much better at the thing that Roy Williams was absolutely terrible at. So this is at the very least equal.
TO - Individually...probably a loss. I don't know that Roy Williams will put up the exact kind of numbers that TO did.
But here is the good part of that. He doesn't have to. With TO gone this offense is freed up to spread the ball around more to it's multitude of weapons. Williams, Witten, Bennett, Crayton, Hurd, Austin, Jones will all pitch in to replace what we lost from TO and they'll do it quite well.
So yeah we lost having one guy who is a great playmaker in favor of getting the ball into the hands of several playmakers. I think that works out much to the favor of the Cowboys.
Come back when your BUMS own one of them...
wishful thinking on PT's part. 
