The NFC East is expected to be incredibly tight once again in 2013. Bovada in Las Vegas predicts that all four teams in the league's most popular division will win between seven and nine games. With that in mind, you can make perfectly valid arguments in favor of the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins finishing first, or last, in a division that has come down to the wire each of the last four years. 

Let's do exactly that, starting with why the 'Skins will win the division...

ON THE OTHER HAND: WHY THE REDSKINS WILL FINISH DEAD LAST IN THE NFC EAST IN 2013

They won the division last year—duh!

Read More »0

Injuries happen every year and to every team during organized team activities. Some are serious, and others are not. Usually, when the injuries aren't breaks or tears that will require major surgery and/or long recovery periods, there's little to be concerned about when the regular season is still four months off. 

So in Dallas, there's little reason to stress out over the fact quarterback Tony Romo is missing the start of OTA's after undergoing a minor procedure to remove a cyst from his back. On the surface, the "hamstring tweak" that is keeping running back DeMarco Murray off the field would seem to be even less innocuous but that's before you consider Murray's propensity for getting hurt. 

Murray not only missed six games and was limited in others last year due to a sprained left foot, but he also failed to make it through his rookie season before suffering a broken right ankle and a high ankle sprain. Earlier that year, a hamstring injury forced the third-round pick to sit out a large chunk of training camp and the preseason. Also a bad hammy caused him to miss the 2008 BCS national championship game at Oklahoma (where injuries killed his stock late in his college career).

He doesn't seem worried. "It's really nothing,'' Murray told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan earlier this week. "It's a hamstring thing. Very minor, really just a precautionary thing.''

Read More »10

The Philadelphia Eagles invested their highest draft pick of this century in Oklahoma offensive tackle Lane Johnson, so I have little doubt that the Eagles will get him into the starting lineup this season—regardless of how much the somewhat raw rookie struggles. 

It's not particularly concerning that 2012 fifth-round pick Dennis Kelly has been taking first-team reps ahead of Johnson early on in organized team activities, but it is a small sign that Johnson isn't quite ready yet. 

That might change between now and Philadelphia's Monday Night Football opener in Washington on September 9, but it's another indication that he could experience more growing pains than expected.  

Ben Muth from Football Outsiders provided a rather discouraging assessment of Johnson's pass-blocking skills in an analysis published last week: 

Read More »28

Eli Manning has always been remarkably strong in the face of pressure. His top-notch pocket presence has helped him avoid the types of hits that remove quarterbacks from games, which is why the 32-year-old New York Giants quarterback has taken all but 35 snaps in the last three years and hasn't missed a start due to injury in his nine-year career.

But Eli's older brother possesses the same traits when facing pressure and—once upon a time—Peyton Manning also established himself as an ironman who never missed time due to injury. 

Until this happened and everything changed for Peyton, who missed the entire 2011 season as a result of neck problems.

The point is that one hit can change everything, and every time a block is missed or a blitzing linebacker or defensive back isn't picked up, the odds increase that the quarterback will be hit.

Read More »26

Dallas Cowboys fans have for quite some time been immensely passionate and loyal, but also increasingly frustrated with the franchise's inability to reanimate the glory days that slipped away a decade-and-a-half ago.

The 'Boys have won only a single playoff game since 1997 and haven't made the playoffs since 2009. They're coming off back-to-back 8-8 seasons and it didn't appear as though they did much to change that this offseason. 

All spring, I've been trying to tell fans to relax. This is a team that suffered a disgusting amount of injuries last season but has most or all of the right pieces in place. They finished 5-3 despite those injuries, falling just short of the postseason, and now they could be on the brink of something rather special. 

Read More »48

It's been a while since we've busted out a "Would You Rather," so I figured we'd wrap up the week on the NFC East blog by comparing two NFC East running backs with hefty résumés. 

One, LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles, is coming off a disappointing season but has already accomplished quite a lot during his short career. 

The other, Alfred Morris of the Washington Redskins, is coming off a huge season but was a no-name sixth-round draft pick before that. 

If you went off of what McCoy and Morris did in 2012 alone, this wouldn't appear to be much of a debate. Here's the breakdown:

Read More »247

One year ago at around this time, we made a case for why DeMarcus Ware was the best player in the NFC East. That wasn't a highly controversial position to take, because Ware had more sacks and pressures than any pass-rusher in football between 2008 and 2011 and was coming off a 19.5-sack season.

This year, though, things have become a little more complicated. 

Ware's sack total plummeted to 11.5 while he struggled with injuries in his age-30 season. Jason Pierre-Paul's sack total also dropped from 16.5 to 6.5, Eli Manning had a down season, Tony Romo threw a tied-for-league-high 19 interceptions, Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson, Sean Lee and Hakeem Nicks got hurt and Trent Cole and Nnamdi Asomugha were disappointments, along with pretty much everyone else in Philadelphia. 

Victor Cruz, Jason Witten, Anthony Spencer and Evan Mathis deserve some love, as per usual, and you could make a valid argument for any one of them, but two players in particular emerged to such a degree that I'm prepared to give them an edge over everyone else.

Read More »94

Bad news, Dallas Cowboys fans. It looks like you'll be stuck with a Doug Free/Jermey Parnell combo at right tackle again in 2012. 

There is some good news, though. With Free taking a sizable pay cut on Thursday, the Cowboys have wiped a significant amount of money off the books for this year, next year, 2015 and 2016. 

Free was scheduled to make $15 million over the next two years, but that total has dropped to $7 million, with only his 2013 salary of $3.5 million guaranteed. The 'Boys probably could have had a free agent like Eric Winston for a similar price (and this move might even give them the flexibility to still make that move), but it also would have cost Dallas $7 million over two years to release Free on June 1. 

In other words, this is by far the cheapest scenario. I know that doesn't please Cowboys fans, but let's keep in mind that this is a team that is currently slated to be more than $20 million over the salary cap entering the 2014 offseason after reworking a slew of deals this spring. 

Read More »10