Last year I predicted the downfall of two teams, to the point that coaches would be fired and entirely new directions would be taken. Those two teams were the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys.
Obviously, I was right about the 49ers, but even I didn’t imagine how bad it would get. With the Cowboys, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Dallas was a dropped pass (and it was dropped, Dez Bryant) from playing in the NFC Championship game and maybe beyond. I figured Jason Garrett would be fired midseason and the Cowboys would go 3-13.
I am an expert, you see.
Still, going .500 on that kind of prediction isn’t so bad. Will the Cowboys keep it going or will the be caught from behind? Here’s how I see the NFC East shaking out.
Philadelphia Eagles
2015 Projection: 12-4
2014 Result: 10-6 (missed playoffs)
In spite of posting a 10-6 record, the Eagles weren’t even on the floor when the bouquet was tossed at the end of the season, caught in the bathroom after eating a bad batch of shrimp. Head coach Chip Kelly looked at his team and made the moves he thought to make it better. Personally, I think it’s a push (Sam Bradford and Nick Foles will both be great, so will LeSean McCoy and DeMarco Murray).
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But the Eagles will be better and more explosive than before, with an improved defense. On offense, Bradford will show everyone why he was the No. 1 pick in 2010 and Murray will show the Cowboys were stupid to let him walk. Both are making the Pro Bowl and the playoffs.
New York Giants
2015 Projection: 11-5
2014 Result: 6-10 (missed playoffs)
By the end of last season no team played offense better than the New York Giants. This wasn’t a secret to head coach Tom Coughlin so he spent the offseason trying to fix their biggest problem, the defense and he did it by bringing the guy back that built their last Super Bowl squad, Steve Spagnuolo.
With the return of Victor Cruz, the Giants are absolutely loaded at wide receiver and in case you need a refresher on that, just go into your kid’s room and look at the fathead on his wall or on the cover of the video game he’s playing. Odell Beckham Jr. burst onto the scene last year, catching 12 passes for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in just 12 games. Give him 16 and see what happens. I think he’ll play in more than 16 this season.
Dallas Cowboys
2015 Projection: 10-6
2014 Result: 12-4 (lost to the Packers in the divisional round)
Will 10-6 be good enough for the Cowboys to make the playoffs this season? You’ll have to wait and see to find out. I don’t think the wheels come off for the Cowboys this season, but losing Murray and replacing him with Christin Michael and Darren McFadden is a stumbling move all around. The Cowboys could have drafted his replacement, with T.J. Yeldon, Ameer Abdullah, Tevin Coleman or Duke Johnson all on the board when Dallas had picks come up. They passed on all of them.
Now, the Cowboys got good players with those picks. It’s hard to argue with Byron Jones and Randy Gregory in the first and second rounds, but they should have at least made a move in free agency. They still haven’t.
Washington Redskins
2015 Projection: 3-13
2014 Result: 4-12 (missed playoffs)
There are plenty of questions surrounding the 2015 Washington Redskins and none of them are good. Will they trade Robert Griffin III? Will they fire Jay Gruden tomorrow? Will they even be called the Redskins two weeks from now? Nobody knows. What we do know is that the Redskins are terrible and are going to be terrible and there’s no way to save them.
They have a first round pick for the first time in three years and they use it on a tackle who probably should be a guard. And it’s not that Brandon Scherff is a bad player. He’ll be fine. The problem is that the Redskins had so, so, so many more needs than that and Scherff will not win them a single game this season. Or next. Frankly, three wins may be high for them.
