Welcome to the NFC East: One of the toughest divisions to predict every season, and home to some of the most passionate fan bases in the National Football League. Due to the polarizing nature of each team, it creates a storm for odds-makers and a pile of thoughts and opinions for them to go through to get the true favorites. On top of that, they still have to put together figures for each team as well.
Needless to say, it’s a tough job. And those aren’t the only factors either. Not only are the odds-makers hearing loud-mouthed opinions from fans, but they’re also hearing from passionate haters, and there’s a lot of them for each team of the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and Washington Redskins. They each have loyal fan bases, and they each have a load of thoroughbred haters to go along with them. So I’m sure you can imagine just what the odds-makers are hearing when it comes to NFC East betting. Well, we’ve finally arrived. After all of the hoopla from the fans and evaluating all of the figures, the odds-makers have finally arrived to who their favorite is entering the 2019 campaign, and we have the Philadelphia Eagles on top!
According to web-based sportsbook Bovada, the Philadelphia Eagles currently sit on top of the NFC East as a -105 favorite. Afterwards, we have the Dallas Cowboys in second place at +140, followed by the Washington Redskins in third with a distant +900. Coming in dead last, we have the New York Giants and their +1200 odds.
Let’s go over each team of the Eagles, Cowboys, Redskins, and Giants more in depth, their odds, and their chances to win the NFC East.
You can also read my previews and see my predictions on the AFC East, AFC North, AFC South and AFC West, and you can look forward to future pieces on the NFC North, NFC South and NFC West.
Let’s face it, the success of the Philadelphia Eagles rides or dies with a single player, and that’s their quarterback Carson Wentz — especially with Nick Foles now gone. We all know why the Eagles decided to let Foles walk. First off, it was because they had to out of respect for Foles, he deserves to be a starter at this point. (And on top of that, they weren’t trying to pay a four year, $88 million contract — up to $102 million with incentives — which Foles deserves.) Second, Wentz has the potential to become the best quarterback in the National Football League one day, it’s just that injuries have absolutely killed his last two seasons.
And that’s where the Eagles are now at. Now granted, Philadelphia was able to win Super Bowl LII and make the playoffs last season without Wentz, but they would also fail to win the NFC East without him (a division that was up for grabs the entire second half of the season) — that probably wouldn’t have been the case if Wentz was healthy. But Foles did good work to still carry them into the postseason, which makes Wentz’s health even more important now, because like I’ve already mentioned, Foles isn’t in Philadelphia anymore.
If Wentz is completely healthy the entire season, and that’s a pretty big ‘if’ at the current moment, the Eagles are in the driver’s seat to win the division.
That’s certainly true when you look at the talent that surrounds Wentz as well, Philadelphia is loaded. Their offensive line remains one of the top in the league, and their other line, the defensive one, is also among the best. Only allowing an average of 96.9 rushing yards-per-game against them last season, that would put them in the No. 7 ranking for the best in the NFL. As you see, the Eagles have all of the resources to claim the division in 2019.
The only weakness that I see with this year’s Philadelphia Eagles is their defensive secondary. If they have a situation where one of their starters get injured, they don’t have much depth in that area to counter it. This was also a huge problem for the Eagles last season as well. Placed as a favorite and labeled with a -105 figure, I’m not seeing much value with Philadelphia here, especially with the already-mentioned durability of Carson Wentz — or lack thereof.
The Dallas Cowboys enter the 2019 season as the defending champions of the NFC East, and they have all of the tools to make it happen again for a repeat title. But, of course, the Cowboys come with trust issues when wagering. With Dak Prescott still being young and learning the game, and a coaching staff that leaves you like ‘huh’ from time to time, they have an offense that hasn’t even came close to hitting their full potential yet. It’s almost like head coach Jason Garrett and his staff are scared to make big plays, and this due to lack of trust in their players.
In the first half of the season last year, the Cowboys had tallied a .500 4-4 record and it had appeared that Dallas were on their way to an 8-8 performance. On top of that, they were also trailing the Philadelphia Eagles by two games for the division lead. However, the Cowboys would then make a power move and traded for star WR Amari Cooper. After acquiring Cooper and making some improvements to their defense as well, Dallas would then go on a stretch where they would win six out of the last eight remaining games on the schedule. When the smoke cleared, they were sitting with double-digit wins at 10-6 and the NFC East crown.
They’ll obviously still have a dominant running game with Ezekiel Elliott at the helm, and what makes it even sweeter is how good their offensive line is to go along with Elliott’s power. If the coaching staff can put a little more trust into Dak Prescott (especially with Amari Cooper as one of his receivers) to go along with that running game of Elliott’s, the Cowboys are set for a successful season, and one that I see winning the division. However, there is an issue for the new campaign: After winning the division in 2018, they’ll now be tasked with a first-place schedule, something that may make it tough for Dallas to repeat a double-digit winning year.
I’m honestly torn between who to pick between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys on who to win the NFC East, it’s definitely between those two. I want to pick the Eagles, but I don’t trust Carson Wentz’s durability. I want to pick the Cowboys, but I’m not sure how they’re going to do against first-place competition all season long. And another factor that makes it hard is because I’m 100% sure this division battle between Philadelphia and Dallas will last all season long, ultimately coming down to an NFC East championship game in Week 16 between the Eagles and Cowboys. I’ll make you wait until the end of the piece, I need more time to think. (It’s that hard.) Until then, let’s go over the Washington Redskins and New York Giants.
The Washington Redskins (shout out to the DMV!) have a solid shot for a winning season this year, and that’s solely based on how elite their defense is. With that being said, I don’t see them taking the division from either the Philadelphia Eagles or Dallas Cowboys with the state of their offense.
As far as their defense is concerned, they would go out and acquire safety Landon Collins from the New York Giants, and their defensive line is riddled with five-star recruits from the University of Alabama football program. With how dominating Washington’s defense can be, it’s going to cause problems for opposition, and if health remains on their side, they’ll be able to do similar numbers like the 22.4 points-per-game tally they held opponents to last season. That defense in DC is loaded.
When you flip to the offensive side of the ball, however, there’s more questions than praise — especially at the quarterback position. After Alex Smith suffered a horrific leg injury (and almost lost his leg, yes, seriously), Case Keenum is now the starting QB. In 2018 with the Denver Broncos, he would put up solid tallies of 3,890 yards and 18 touchdowns, but the 15 interceptions that he would throw is what leaves you with major trust issues in regards to Washington’s offense. On top of that, Keenum has zero receivers to work with, so that’s also going to become an issue. And on top of that, the Redskins were ranked near dead last (29th) in the NFL last season in points-per-game (17.6 PPG).
Keenum’s productivity (with their elite defense) may be able to boost the Washington Redskins to a seven-to-nine win season, but even then, that’s the best-case scenario that I see with Washington.
Running back Adrian Peterson did tell reporters that the team is looking really good with Keenum, so maybe they can deliver a season of success. I have no doubt they can, and I hope they do with me being from the DMV, but like I’ve already said, I’m not seeing them winning the division over the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Solid long shot pick though.
Last season, especially after selecting running back Saquon Barkley in the 2018 NFL Draft, I thought the New York Giants had the potential to surprise some people with a postseason push at the end of the season. Quite the contrary: They’re actually one of the worst teams in the National Football League. Still riding with a 38-year-old Eli Manning (with a rookie Duke QB Daniel Jones as his backup), don’t be shocked to see the Giants as the underdog in the strong vast majority of their contests this season.
What was already a pretty dismal 5-11 football team in 2018 would take major hits in the offseason, particularly with playmakers. Not only would they lose Landon Collins on the defensive side of the ball, and to their NFC East rival Washington Redskins at that (and for big money at six years, $84 million), but they would lose one of the best players (if not the best) on their team in Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns via trade. With the exception of Saquon Barkley, there’s no talent on this team, and it’s a 100% guarantee that New York will finish dead-last in the division.
Stay away from the New York Giants and their +1200 odds.
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