The NFC East was once the standard of NFL excellence. It is the only division in the league in which all four teams have won at least one Super Bowl. But here, in 2019, the Super Bowl is not a realistic goal for any of these teams, even for the one that will represent it in the NFC Playoffs.
2019 was a tough year for the NFC East. To no one’s surprise, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles both took turns in the early season polls to win the division. The New York Giants and Washington Redskins were initially given a a puncher’s chance, but as the season wore on, fell out of reasonable range.
No one thought the division would be this bad. Dallas (7-8) has completely collapsed and has to rely on the Giants (4-11) to beat the Eagles (8-7) this week to have a shot at the division title. Philadelphia simply has to win this week, something they’ve done in 10 of their last 11 meetings against New York.
Washington (3-12), like the Giants, were out early after an 0-7 start and would love to send Dallas home for the winter with a 7-9 record. That surely will result in the long-awaited dismissal of head coach Jason Garrett, who has done a terrible job with the talented Cowboys this season.
This coming offseason will bring changes to the division. Three of the four teams could be headed for coaching changes.
Philadelphia will likely stand pat with Doug Pederson at the helm. They had an unusually high number of key injuries this season and are still poised to win the division heading into Week 17. His Super Bowl victory is still fairly fresh in everyone’s mind and there’s no doubt he’d be hired another team within minutes of being cut loose.
Should Dallas fail to win the division, Garrett will surely be allowed to walk. The Cowboys have had a window to get to the Super Bowl for several years now and have failed. No postseason would be a huge step back and force the Joneses to make a change. It’s time, anyway. Garrett has been their 10 years and has won just two playoff games.
The Giants are in the midst of a lull as they trudge through their sixth losing season in seven years. It’s only been two seasons for general manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur, but ownership may not be pleased with what little progress they’ve seen. The Giants were 5-11 last year and would need to upset Philadelphia on Sunday to match that.
The Redskins have already dismissed their head coach, Jay Gruden, and have been playing under interim head coach Bill Callahan. They’ve been fairly competitive under Callahan but it is expected that they will seek to bring in some fresh faces to finally get this ship righted.