Can The ‘Boys Repeat?

Written by Jake Loessin

The NFC East is a race between last year’s division champions Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Dallas won the East last season with a 12-4 record over the 10-6 Philadelphia Eagles and was one game and one heavily debated call away from facing Seattle in the NFC Championship game.  Since then both teams have made significant changes during the offseason.

The Cowboys traded the NFL’s leading rusher last season, Demarco Murray, to Philadelphia but return with a strong receiving corps and added a strong downhill runner in Darren McFadden from Oakland.  Dez Bryant’s contract was also a big concern going into this offseason but Bryant and the team reached a financial agreement that ultimately provided him with a long-term extension keeping the elite receiver in Dallas for many years to come.

The Eagles also made key changes in skill positions during the offseason.  The Eagles traded running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills and acquired DeMarco Murray from the Cowboys.  The Eagles also traded the young up and coming quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams for their quarterback Sam Bradford.  Bradford, when healthy, has proven to be a reliable quarterback who manages the game well.  Sam Bradford along with Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and the addition of Tim Tebow will make the quarterback position an interesting one for the Eagles.

The bottom dweller Giants and Redskins are looking to make improvements from last season’s poor efforts.  The Giants were unusually bad last year going 6-10 and Eli Manning never seemed to find his groove.  However, young players like Odell Beckham Jr. had a breakout rookie season and will hopefully continue to play at a high level in 2015.  The Giants will also have star wide receiver Victor Cruz back after missing all of last year with a knee injury.  Cruz will take a lot of the load off of Beckham Jr. and will definitely give Eli Manning more looks down field.

The Redskins continual slide into ineptness continued last year as they finished with a record of 4-12.  Coach Jay Gruden is on the “hot seat” and needs the ‘Skins to win bigtime to keep his job.  RG3 was reportedly 100% healthy when pre-season started but has already been beaten up and had his brain scrambled and the Redskins will need him healthy and playing well as their offense literally lives and dies with Griffin’s level of play.

The NFC East is the Cowboys division to lose.  Tony Romo is playing some of the best football of his life and he has a tremendous talent base around him.  Expect the Cowboys offense to be clicking from the get-go with its outstanding offensive line handling the load.  Dez Bryant and the rest of Dallas’ receiving core will light up NFC East secondaries and DeMarco Murray will be an afterthought due to their newly modified stable of running backs with Darren McFadden and Joseph Randle.  On paper it looks pretty obvious, but the question of who controls the East will be answered on the field when the Cowboys and Eagles go head to head on September 20th in Philadelphia