Photo: Lee Coleman/Icon Sportswire

A lot of ink gets spilled every year talking about the NFC East. This year there will be questions about Dak Prescott’s contract, a reshaped Eagles defense, a bunch of new coaches, some existing ones on the hot seat, and a whole new world in Washington.

Bryce Rossler brought on newly-minted ESPN football writer Ben Solak (previously of The Ringer) to talk shop about the division that hasn’t had a repeat champion in 20 years. Let’s look at some of the questions and storylines they raised for each team. 

Was Jason Kelce the straw that stirred the drink for the Eagles’ offense?

Apart from being a team leader and a remaining tie to their Super Bowl win, Jason Kelce was an outstanding—and singular—center. He retired after a year in which he was the most valuable center and second-most valuable lineman overall by Total Points.

Solak peeled back the layers of the impact of his departure. 

Protection issues on the inside are obvious. Cam Jurgens was drafted as the heir apparent at center a couple years ago, so maybe he can slot in competently. Second-year player Tyler Steen fills in for Jurgens.

Kelce was calling a lot of the running game as well. Per Solak:

“Their blocking schemes were very specific to the fronts and alignments they were getting. They would say, ‘OK, we’re running zone, but if we get this front the center is gonna go under the guard, it’s a wipe call, right? There were a lot of adjustments on the field because Kelce could call those from the pivot once he lines up.”

Another layer is leadership and veteran presence, which is tough to nail down in terms of actual value of course. But if things go sideways to start the year, more of the burden will be on Jalen Hurts to right the ship.

Where Solak has his biggest concern is that Kelce had been weaponized based on his ability to get out in space as a puller and to anchor their elite quarterback sneak game. Last year, the Eagles ran nearly double the quarterback sneaks of any other team, with a success rate over 80 percent. We’ll get a sense for how much responsibility Kelce had for the success of the <insert play nickname here> based on not just their early conversion rates but also how often they go for it (and thus their implied confidence).

Regardless of the change in coordinator, is the Cowboys’ defense built to win a Super Bowl?

The Dallas defense under Dan Quinn lived and died by the big play. Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland led the NFL in interceptions in 2021 and 2023, respectively, with Bland close to the top in 2022. Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence are forces when it comes to getting after the quarterback. 

New coordinator Mike Zimmer has a similar philosophy in terms of creating chaos for the offense, but he does it a bit differently. Per Solak:

“Dan Quinn was, ‘We’re always going to put four guys down on the line of scrimmage, we’re always going to rush those four.’ Mike Zimmer says, ‘We’re going to put five, six, seven guys on the line of scrimmage, and four of those are going to come and you’re not going to be sure who. And sometimes five or six of those guys are going to come.’ The Cowboys are going to go from one of the lower blitz rate teams in the league to one of the higher blitz rate teams.”

The Cowboys have absolutely been a boom-bust defense, and they’ve done it well. But the issue with winning the Super Bowl is that the defense might need to hold up for a few games in a row, which puts pressure on the back end to not give up an explosive play in a key spot. 

The change in coordinator may make them better suited in a matchup against a team like the 49ers, at least, because Shanahan-style offenses have shown themselves to be a good matchup for a Dan-Quinn-in-Seattle style Cover-3-heavy defensive scheme, and they can create a more “bespoke” game plan.

The Giants’ front four is scary, but will the defense as a whole be able to make up for a potentially shaky offense?

New York’s defensive front now has Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux on the outside and Dexter Lawrence on the inside, making for one of the more compelling starting groups in the league. 

That front will need to dominate to compensate for a back seven that has a lot of question marks. The loss of safety Xavier McKinney (Packers) is a problem, and second-year first round pick Deonte Banks isn’t necessarily ready to provide a steady hand as CB1 in the absence of Adoree’ Jackson, who himself had a down year in the last year of his Giants contract.

They brought in Shane Bowen (coming from Tennessee) to coach the defense, continuing the theme of new defensive coordinators who are more likely to mix it up schematically than their predecessors.

“Bowen really likes to build a one-week game plan. When they played the Dolphins last year, they were pretty good for how outmanned and outgunned they were. They were just throwing out coverage rotations and dropping guys into zones they aren’t typically in. He built a very custom game plan for a Dolphins offense that’s a very custom offense…I’m looking forward to what it looks like. I’m not convinced there’s enough talent to really push the defense into ‘We win games’ territory.” 

– Ben Solak

“When you look across the league, that’s how most defenses are. I’m talking about the best units in the league. You look at Baltimore, the Chiefs…they mix it up, and they have access to different tools at their disposal.” 

– Bryce Rossler

Bowen will have to make lemonade out of lemons if he wants to help this team push for a .500 season.

Was there a plan when constructing the Commanders’ roster?

At the end of the day, Washington’s fate is going to be determined by whether first round pick Jayden Daniels is legit. But while we’re figuring that out, Bryce points out that it’s kind of a weird roster that lacks the single core competency that the Giants have (their front four on defense).

The additions of Tyler Biadasz and Nick Allegretti on the offensive line, Zach Ertz at tight end, Austin Ekeler at running back, and Bobby Wagner at linebacker look like the moves of a team striving to fill out the back end of a solid roster, not dart throws that give the team a chance to grow into the future. They did add safety Jeremy Chinn from the Panthers, who showed some promise but hasn’t grown much after a solid first couple years.

Bordering on a rant, Solak put it well: “There was absolutely no reason for the Commanders to go about doing this this way. They spent so much money on so many players who might have a year of good football left. For why? New ownership group, new GM, new head coach. Who is forcing you to try to win ball games right now?” 

Both Solak and Rossler have questions about what Daniels will look like in Year 1, and they have questions about whether the Commanders’ free agency additions are good enough to justify the expenditure. They seem likely to be in a position to add a blue chip prospect in the draft next year, and assuming things don’t go catastrophically they can avoid using it on a quarterback.

Conclusion

The SIS Betting Model—which leans on late season results heading into the following year—likes the Cowboys in this division by 3 games, with the Giants and Eagles sitting around .500. It won’t take much for the Eagles to outdo that projection and for the Giants to undershoot, but it’s hard to argue that for this season Dallas is in the most solid position in the division.

Check out the full breakdown of each team on the Off the Charts Football Podcast!