Looking at the NFC East: Giants Aim To Fend Off Talented, Flawed Foes

How strong is your team’s division? How will it impact the team’s playoff chances?

As the 2009 season approaches, and the Giants aim for a second world championship in three seasons, the team is filled with normal offseason question marks. 

Several free-agent signees, rookies, and veteran holdovers will have to step right in and contribute or adapt to increased roles if the Giants are to reach their potential and once again be a team to be reckoned with come playoff time.

The evolution of the Giants in year one AB—After Burress—will include training camp battles for time at wide receiver, strong side linebacker, in the defensive line rotation, and a search for a return specialist.

As Giants fans wonder who will emerge in these battles and line up in key spots come September, they can be sure of one constant obstacle that is rarely avoidable: fierce competition in the NFC East that will ensure that just earning a playoff spot will once again be a tough task.

Throughout the course of the Super Bowl era, 1966-2008, no division has come close to matching the achievements of the NFC East. The Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins have combined for 11 world championships, and the Eagles have been a highly competitive franchise despite their 48 year championship drought.

A quarter of the way through the 2008 season, it appeared to be a strong bet that an NFC East team would add to the division's record 19 Super Bowl appearances. The Giants started 4—0; the Cowboys and Redskins were a game back at 3—1; and the talented Eagles brought up the rear at 2—2.

Pundits across the country declared the NFC East representing the NFC in the Super Bowl to be a foregone conclusion. However, many experts forgot just how long the five—month marathon of a season really is.

The division's previously deposed whipping boys, the St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, sent out west during the 2002 NFL divisional realignment, overcame their dreadful history, a late—season swoon, and the talented quarter of NFC East teams to reach Super Bowl XLIII.

The surprising Redskins came back to earth and finished last at 8—8. The preseason favorite Cowboys were hampered first by Tony Romo's injury, then by internal controversy and plain underachieving, and limped to a disappointing 9—7 record.

The Cowboys 9—7 record was punctuated by a season-ending 44—6 shellacking in a win and in Week 17 showdown with the Eagles, whose fourth win in their final five games and some help from the Oakland Raiders upset of Tampa Bay propelled them into an improbable wild card spot and ultimately into their surprising run to the NFC Championship game.

As for the 12—4 NFC East champion Giants, it was sadly as simple as one set of numbers: 11—1 and 1—4. If you don't know what those numbers mean, you're not a very good Giants fan and you can look them up yourself since you're sitting at a computer reading this article. (Apologies to Giants fans serving in the military, or living in caves somewhere.)

With that morsel of bitterness and negativity out of the way, it's time for some fresh and insightful analysis of the Giants' competition for a second consecutive NFC East crown. Opponents are listed alphabetically, not in predicted order of finish.

Dallas Cowboys

Following the season—ending 44—6 defeat in Philadelphia, rumors regarding the Cowboys' future were rampant and wide—ranging. This included reasonable speculation: Wide receiver Terrell Owens would not return, head coach Wade Phillips job was in jeopardy etc., as well as some ridiculous off-season hyperbole, e.g. Tony Romo trade rumors.

Ultimately, owner and de facto General Manager Jerry Jones chose the safe approach: He hoped continuity in the coaching staff, removal of some locker room cancers and underachieving players, along with mid-level free agent acquisitions and draft picks would help the Cowboys return to their 2007 regular season form, when the team went 13-3 and looked like a bona fide Super Bowl contender.

Any analysis of the Cowboys' offseason must begin with Jones' decision to retain head coach Wade Phillips. A brief look at Phillips career resume shows a frightening trend for Cowboy fans: early success followed by declining records.

While Phillips has taken each of the three teams he has coached—1993 Broncos, 1999 Bills, and 2007 Cowboys—to the playoffs in his first season, an impressive accomplishment, the success ends there.

First you have the 0-4 playoff record (To be fair, one of those losses was the 1999 home run throwback loss the Bills suffered to the Titans, bad luck and a miracle combined.), and then you have a slew of disappointing seasons: 1994 Broncos, 2000 Bills, and 2008 Cowboys.

On top of these bad seasons, which do happen to top-flight coaches, one can cite Phillips' disgraceful handling of the Doug Flutie/Rob Johnson quarterback controversy in Buffalo and, more recently, his failure to discipline Dallas' band of malcontents.

While Phillips was given some questionable characters to manage and some flare-ups were inevitable, they were far too frequent, and the team has been prone to dumb penalties in key spots even when it has been winning.

Part of Jones' logic for retaining Phillips had to do not with common sense, but with a Texas trademark our country has grown to love or despise, depending on whether or not one's political ideology is that of compassionate conservatism. How exactly did politics find it's way into a discussion on the NFL?

The answer is simple: Instead of remembering the Alamo, remember the Chan Gailey era, from 1998 to 1999. After taking the Cowboys to two playoff appearances in his two seasons as head coach that ended in first—round defeats, Gailey was fired.

Apparently, Jones failed, at the time, to realize a fact that the rest of the country was well aware of: Even with the famed triplets of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin still in place, the rest of the team had badly decayed and was a shadow of what it was in the championship years of the early and mid-'90s.

Fast forward to 2009. Jones is quoted as saying that he "regrets just giving Chan Gailey two years." As rumors that Jones was privately contemplating firing Phillips and replacing him with Mike Shanahan abounded, Jones' public stance of being reluctant to make a coaching change after two seasons ultimately won out.

Often criticized for being impatient, this instance, in which Jones showed patience, may prove to be a foolhardy one. While Tom Coughlin managed to win a championship in 2007 during a season that began with him on the proverbial hot seat, a fact he personally acknowledged in his own book, these success stories are rare.

As the 2009 season approaches, no NFL coach is sitting on a hotter seat than Phillips, and it is likely that he will at least need to win a playoff game and improve the team's overall attitude and level of cohesion if he is to return for a fourth season.  

In terms of offseason personnel decisions, the Cowboys received more attention for who's not coming back than for any signings they made. They decided to do away with two of their primary divas—receiver Terrell Owens and cornerback Pacman Jones—and watched as free agent defensive lineman Chris Canty signed with the rival Giants.

Dallas did sign Igor Olshansky from San Diego and Keith Brooking from Atlanta to compensate for the loss of Canty and to bolster the linebacking corps, respectively.

As for the draft class, it's a wait and see proposition, with the Cowboys drafting 12 players but not making a selection in the draft's first two rounds.

Offensively, save for the loss of Owens, and trading for Jon Kitna to upgrade last season's dreadful backup quarterback tandem of Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger, the cast of skill players remains the same.

With Romo and Marion Barber in the backfield, Jason Witten at tight end, and Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton at receiver, this offense will be able to put up big numbers, at times.

While talent is not a question on offense, even without Owens, consistency is. Since becoming the starter midway through the '06 season Romo has thrown 81 touchdowns, but has also thrown 46 interceptions in just 39 starts, with many of these picks in key spots.

The wide receiver position and the defense are no different. At receiver, Roy Williams has all the talent, speed, and size you could want, but has been injury prone his entire career, playing in 16 games only once, and surpassing 60 catches only twice in his six-year career.

Patrick Crayton should be a solid No. 2, combining for 89 catches and 11 touchdowns the past two seasons, but needs to mature in terms of avoiding letting his emotions get the best of him, and avoiding key drops.

On defense, the Cowboys possess some talented players such as linebacker DeMarcus Ware and cornerback Terence Newman, but have been prone to breakdowns and far too many dreadful games to be considered a top-flight unit.

While the signings of the cagey veteran Brooking and the talented Olshansky should help, the fact remains that with Dallas needing one win to salvage their season and clinch a wild card birth in Weeks 16 and 17, the Dallas defense was a complete no-show.

Baltimore's ground game shredded the Cowboys for 265 yards in a 33—24 upset in the final game at Texas Stadium, and things were no better a week later in Philadelphia.

In the 44-6 defeat, the Dallas defense once again yielded 30 points (Philadelphia scored two defensive touchdowns.), and helped result in the firing of defensive coordinator Brian Stewart.

Looking ahead to '09, it is likely that the Cowboys will be a tad better than last year just by changing the calendar and cleansing themselves of all went wrong in '08. However, this was a team that had a Super Bowl appearance in it's grasp in '07 and should have at least been in the playoff mix in '08.

With an incredible amount of pressure on the quarterback, head coach, and the team in general, the likeliest scenario is another season somewhere around 10 wins and an end-of-the-season fight for a wild-card spot: a solid year but one that will fall short of the team's expectations for its core nucleus.

While Jerry Jones showed his compassion for Wade Phillips last January, there's a strong possibility Jones will be showing someone else his pocket book next January.

Philadelphia Eagles

Even for the most talented of forecasters, predicting the fortunes of NFL teams in the preseason is quite difficult. Each year sees highly thought of teams posting disappointing seasons, and surprising teams emerging to surpass all expectations. From week to week, things are no different, as shocking upsets and league—wide parity are made the norm.

Over the course of the past four seasons, perhaps no team has reflected the NFL's inconsistencies more than the Giants' turnpike rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles.

When the Eagles finally reached Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004, following four straight seasons of NFC playoff losses that included three straight losses in the NFC Championship game, the Super Bowl loss to New England marked a turning point for the franchise.

After five straight years of being as solid as a rock, with playoff appearances and at least 11 wins in each year, the Eagles have gone into a prolonged phase of being hot and cold, from week to week, and season to season.

The 2005 6-10 season was somewhat understandable, with Terrell Owens doing his best to sabotage the season before being banished after seven games, and Donovan McNabb suffering a season-ending injury after nine games. Since then, however, things have gotten downright strange.

The '06 campaign saw McNabb's return, a sizzling 4-1 start followed by four losses in the team's next five games, and then another season-ending injury for McNabb.

Thought to have been washed up and with the Eagles playoff hopes presumably shot, Jeff Garcia stepped in and led the Eagles to wins in their final five straight games, road wins over the contending Giants and Cowboys, the NFC East title, and a victory over the Giants in the wild card round of the playoffs.

The 2007 season proved to be equally puzzling. The Eagles never found any level of consistency and finished 8-8.

But while the team was inept in losses to some inferior foes, they beat 13-3 Dallas on the road, gave the 18-1 Patriots one of their toughest games of the regular season, and were a field goal away from taking the world champion Giants to overtime.

Then you have last season's 5-5-1 start, where the Eagles seemed to alternate great efforts and stinkers. This included the infamous McNabb benching in Baltimore, talk of the end of the Reid/McNabb era, and then, with the season thought to be in a peril, a subsequent 6-1 run out of nowhere to the NFC Championship game.

With two straight playoff road wins at Minnesota and the Giants behind them, the Eagles appeared destined to match the Giants' three straight playoff road wins the year before and reach the Super Bowl. And then, back to the unforseen, a heartbreaking 32—25 loss to the Cardinals.

As hard as the Eagles have been to predict in recent years, they still appear to be a formidable bunch heading into the 2009 season.

McNabb and Giants nemesis Brian Westbrook remain in the backfield, the talented second—year man DeSean Jackson, who had 62 catches, leads a receiving corps filled with scrappy veterans like Kevin Curtis and Hank Baskett that don't put up huge numbers but have formed good chemistry with McNabb.

The underrated Brent Celek, who put up 10 catches and two touchdowns in the championship game loss in Arizona, steps in for Raven signee L.J. Smith at tight end, and Jason Peters, brought in via trade with Buffalo, will man the all-important left tackle position.

Knowing their offense was filled with steady playmakers and a lack of flash and big play ability save for Westbrook and possibly Jackson, the Eagles went heavy on offense in the draft.

With their first three selections, the Eagles chose Missouri receiver Jeremy Maclin, Pittsburgh running back LeSean McCoy, and Florida tight end Cornelius Ingram. All three will have opportunities to step right into the rotations at their respective positions.

Defensively, it must be mentioned that the sad realities of life have interjected themselves into the fun of the NFL. Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson, long considered one of the league's best defensive coordinators has taken an indefinite leave of absence to concentrate on his ongoing battle with melanoma.

Let's take a moment to forget about predictions and wish Johnson and his family a speedy recovery!

On the field, talk of the Eagles defense must begin with the loss of seven-time Pro Bowl safety Brian Dawkins in free agency to the Denver Broncos. Known for being somewhat frugal in free agency, a case could have been made either way for the Eagles keeping Dawkins or letting him walk.

While Dawkins has been the leader of the Eagle defense for over a decade and has been a physical presence in the secondary, he is 35 years old. Considering the five-year, $17 million deal he got with Denver, the Eagles' choice to part with Dawkins may prove to be a wise one in the long run.

For this season though, the jury is clearly still out on the impact the loss of Dawkins will have.

Other than defensive end Trent Cole and cornerback Asante Samuel, the defense is comprised largely of somewhat anonymous but effective players who have thrived at times under Johnson's aggressive schemes. While this defense is far from being bereft of talent, it has seen better days, and can be exposed by talented offenses.

When you consider that the Eagles made last season's final four and return many talented pieces and draft picks, they will at least be a factor in the divisional race and have a chance at advancing to the playoffs for the eighth time this decade.

On the other side of the coin, this is the same group that lost twice to the Redskins, tied the lowly Bengals, and let's be fair, got what college basketball fans would call a good bracket in the tournament, drawing a mediocre Minnesota team and the fading Giants in the playoffs.

Throw in the fact that the McNabb/Reid relationship for years has appeared to be one bad streak away from a messy breakup, and no one will be surprised to see the Eagles revert back to the inconsistency showed in the 5-5-1 start to last season.

Unlike a stock that should be bought or sold immediately, the Eagles are squarely in the wait and see department of division and conference contenders.

Washington Redskins

Coming off a bizarre season that saw a 6-2 first half disintegrate into a disappointing 8-8 finish, the Redskins are hoping a little spending and drafting on defense and the maturation of quarterback Jason Campbell on offense will lead the team into the division's upper echelon and back into the playoffs.

On the sidelines, Jim Zorn enters his second season as an NFL head coach, and has nowhere to go but up, considering he declared that he "felt like the worst coach in America" in the midst of last season's disappointing second half finish.

All jokes aside, it appears that the Redskins have done little to lift themselves out of the middle of the pack in the NFC.

Even with the signing of $100 million man Albert Haynesworth to bolster the defensive line and re-signing the talented but enigmatic DeAngelo Hall, who appeared to resurrect his career in the final weeks of the '08 season after being cut in early November by Oakland, the Redskins have the look of a bland team that has gotten stale.

Not completely bereft of talent but not exactly overflowing with it either, the Redskins 2009 offense looks quite similar to the Redskins 2008 offense. While everyone coming back is good news for some teams, that is not necessarily the case for Washington.

At the all important quarterback position, Jason Campbell's numbers improved slightly from '07 (12 touchdowns/11 interceptions) to '08 (13 touchdowns/6 interceptions), but not enough to quell rumors that the Redskins pursued Jay Cutler via trade and attempted to trade up and draft USC's Mark Sanchez.

Campbell has proved himself to be a competent signal-caller but has mirrored the rest of the offense in that he has not shown star quality. The way things have gone in Washington over the past decade, it is likely he has one more season to make the jump to stardom or cede the position in 2010.

In the skill areas, the Redskins have a collection of talented individuals who put up solid statistics, except that is, in the most important area: scoring touchdowns. A look at last year's stats shows some disturbing trends that were partly responsible for the 2—6 finish that saw the Redskins score more than one offensive touchdown just twice in the final eight games.

• Clinton Portis-342 carries for 1487 yards, 9 touchdowns
• Santana Moss-79 catches for 1044 yards, 6 touchdowns
• Antwaan Randle-El-53 catches for 593 yards, 4 touchdowns
• Chris Cooley-83 catches for a career high 849 yards, but a career-low 1 touchdown

All in all, a solid crew, but no game-breakers, and certainly no one who keeps opposing defensive coordinators up at night. With the lack of gamebreakers so evident down the stretch last season, it was a bit surprising to see the offseason pass and Daniel Snyder fail to sign one marquee free agent on the offensive side of the ball.

Other than hoping that last year's second year pick Devin Thomas improves on a disappointing 15-catch rookie season, it's hard to see where Washington makes great strides offensively.

Should the offense remain mediocre, Redskins fans can only hope that kicker Shaun Suisham improves on a dreadful season that saw him miss a whopping 10 field goals.

On defense, the Redskins main priority is to improve a pass rush that was anemic in 2008, totaling just 24 sacks.

With Haynesworth being one of the league's top pass rushers from the tackle position, and first-round pick Brian Orakpo out of Texas potentially stepping into the lineup at either end or linebacker, defensive coordinator Greg Blache has some intriguing options to help his cause.

Conversely, there are questions about Haynesworth's motivation following his huge payday, and Orakpo after all, is still an untested rookie.

The rest of the Redskin defense returns several starters and is pretty solid. In 2008, Washington held 10 of 16 opponents under 20 points, and only yielded more than 24 once, in a week 17 27-24 loss to San Francisco with the team eliminated from playoff contention.

Holdover London Fletcher anchors the linebacking corps, and the secondary has great potential with corners Hall and Carlos Rogers forming a solid tandem and big hitter LaRon Landry at safety. If Orakpo and Haynesworth step right in and make significant contributions, the defense should be the team's strength.

All in all, the Redskins are a decent team but one that is still very hard to get excited about. While they give their more talented division rivals tough tests from time to time, the Skins are clearly a team stuck in neutral that could go south in a hurry if they get off to a poor start.

This team's defense can keep it in games, but if the offense continues to sputter, talk of changes at quarterback and head coach will come sooner than later, and the team will likely remain in the NFC East cellar.