Love ’em or hate ’em, ESPN analysts always give us some juicy talking points to respond to. On Wednesday, Mike Greenberg appeared on First Take alongside the show’s normal talking heads, Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman.
In a discussion that revolved around which team will have the easiest route to the postseason, ‘Greeny’ pointed to our Philadelphia Eagles, claiming that with all the shuffling around in the NFC East, the Eagles should have no issue running through the division en route to a first round bye in the playoffs.
“In my opinion (the team with the easiest route) is the Philadelphia Eagles. Why? Because this coming season, three teams in their division, the other three, all have new coaching staffs, Washington, the Giants, and the Cowboys, and they will not have a full OTAs and maybe even a full training camp to implement what they want to do. That division is going to be bad. The Cowboys are taking a step backwards, not forward. They’ve gotten worse, and the new coaches will be behind the eight ball when this starts. The Eagles, who are the model of consistency and stability and have the most stable quarterback situation and everything else in that division, I think, have a chance to run the table in that division.”
Even though I’d shy away from proclaiming the Eagles are NFC East champs in April, it’s hard to argue with Greenberg’s logic here. Every team in the division has a brand new coaching staff, and two of the teams still have question marks at the quarterback positions, Redskins and Giants.
Both Dwayne Haskins and Daniel Jones have the potential to be solid starters, but it’s hard to make an accurate projection for either given their small sample sizes.
Then we have the Cowboys, who have undoubtedly taken a step back this offseason, even if they did find a way to keep Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper around. They lost their best secondary player in Byron Jones in free agency, they lost their slot receiver from last year in Randall Cobb and they also lost arguably their best offensive lineman with Zack Martin announcing his retirement.
The Eagles, on the other hand, I believe have gotten better this offseason, although there are still holes that need to be addressed in the draft. Even though the team lost Malcolm Jenkins, they upgraded the cornerback group immensely with the acquisition of Darius Slay and Nickell Robey-Coleman.
Moving Jalen Mills to safety should help mitigate the loss of Jenkins, along with the signing of Philly native Will Parks. Howie also added some more beef to the defensive line with the signing of Javon Hargrave, a very lowkey signing from Roseman, but a solid one nonetheless.
Do I think the Eagles will win the division next year? Obviously, it’s too early to tell, and the only reason it’s getting discussed on outlets like ESPN right now is because quite frankly there’s nothing else to talk about.
They certainly have a solid chance to take home the division title, though, and just because I’m a fan I will expect them to do so once the season rolls around.