Revival of the NFC East Isn’t Near, It’s Here

Over its long and storied history, the NFC East has garnered a reputation as one of the toughest divisions in the National Football League. Since the merger in 1970, the NFC East has produced more conference championships (20) and Super Bowl wins (12) than any division in football.

2015 was a vastly different story. The NFC East was a tomato can, “won” by a Washington Redskins team that lost more games than they won.

However, it’s time to put away the punchlines. Scrap the “NFC Least” cracks. Give the ribbing a rest. The demise of the NFC East has been greatly exaggerated. After an offseason that saw a great deal of change and upheaval in the division, the NFC East has all the makings of a brawl again in 2016.

A brawl that could produce a serious contender to represent the NFC in Houston at Super Bowl LI.

 

A Giant(s)-Sized Overhaul

Talk about change in the NFC East in 2016 almost has to start in the Big Apple, because just about the only thing that hasn’t changed with the New York Giants is quarterback Eli Manning.

The change began at the top, where after 12 years (and two Super Bowl victories) Tom Coughlin was replaced as head coach by offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo. The 38-year-old McAdoo, who is at the helm of an NFL club for the first time, insisted to WFAN’s Mike Francesa (per CBS New York) that the changes underway in New York aren’t that drastic:

We’re not going to do things exactly the same, but we’re just not going to change to change, either. We believe in evolution, not revolution. There are a lot of things that we’ve done in the past here that I believe in and I was a part in, and we’re going to carry forward with those.

However, that talk of continuity apparently didn’t extend to the roster, because embattled general manager Jerry Reese took a buzzsaw to it, especially on defense.

Not that New York didn’t need it, mind you. The Giants ranked dead last in the NFL defensively last year, allowing an eye-popping 420.3 yards per game. They ranked 30th in sacks, with only 23. The G-Men spent most of the 2015 campaign finding new and inventive ways to blow late leads.

As Chris Chase of USA Today reported last December, the Giants held a fourth-quarter lead in 10 of their first 12 games. They choked that lead away in half those contests.

Make no mistake: If the Giants could have closed teams out with any consistency a season ago, then New York (and not Washington) would have won the East.

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Reese spent a ton of money in free agency insuring there wouldn’t be a repeat this season. The Giants upgraded the pass rush by making Olivier Vernon the richest defensive end in the NFL with a five-year, $85 million contract. They added run-stuffing nose tackle Damon Harrison at over $9 million a season.

New York inked free-agent cornerback Janoris Jenkins to a five-year, $62.5 million whopper of a deal, and then turned around and invested their first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft at the same position with the addition of Ohio State’s Eli Apple.

As Chris Pflum of SB Nation’s Big Blue View wrote, Vernon told beat writers that new and old are coming together well in New York, with veteran holdovers J.T. Thomas and Jason Pierre-Paul (who signed a one-year deal to stay with Big Blue) leading the charge.

“A lot of the guys, from what I’ve seen, J.T. (Thomas),” Vernon said. “JPP speaks up. He’s been a leader here, since he’s been here. A lot of the guys look up to them. I’m glad to be a part of it.”

For the first time in the Giants’ long history as a franchise, the team didn’t add a single offensive or defensive lineman in the draft. And while New York did give Manning a new weapon in second-round wideout Sterling Shepard of Oklahoma, the mantra in 2016 is clear.

This year will not be a repeat of last year, and the Giants will go as far as their new-look defense takes them.

If they play up to their price tag, that could be all the way to Houston

 

The Fall of the House of Chip

The Giants were not the only team in the NFC East who made wholesale changes this year. Nor were they the only team to decide a change in leadership was necessary.

After a pair of 10-win seasons and a trip to the playoffs, the Eagles handed control of personnel decisions to head coach Chip Kelly last year. Kelly remade the roster in his image, trading for quarterback Sam Bradford and handing big free-agent deals to the likes of running back DeMarco Murray and cornerback Byron Maxwell.

The results weren’t what either Kelly or the Eagles had hoped, and after a 7-9 backslide of a season, just like that Kelly was shown the door.

The Eagles settled on Kansas City offensive coordinator Doug Pederson as their next head coach, who is stylistically about as far from Kelly as you can get. Where Kelly is all bombast and gimmicks, Pederson is a reserved coach who favors a much more “classical” offense.

That wasn’t the only departure for the Eagles. Far from it. In fact, executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman (back in the saddle again) wasted no time erasing Kelly’s fingerprints from the roster.

Maxwell and Murray? Traded to the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans, respectively. Maxwell was joined in Miami by linebacker Kiko Alonso, who Kelly acquired from the Buffalo Bills last spring in exchange for tailback LeSean McCoy.

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The lone remaining holdover from Kelly’s machinations was Bradford, who threw for a career-high 3,725 yards in 14 starts for the Eagles in 2015. When the Eagles signed the 28-year-old to a two-year, $36 million extension, the belief was that the Eagles were set, at least at quarterback.

Not so fast, my friend!

In the division’s most stunning move of the offseason, the Eagles dealt a package of picks (including two first-rounders) for the rights to the No. 2 overall pick—a pick the Eagles used to select North Dakota State signal-caller Carson Wentz.

It’s a trade that set off a firestorm of controversy in Philly and spurred a demand to be traded from Bradford, who skipped a round of voluntary workouts in protest.

Pederson has indicated all along that Bradford remains his starting quarterback, but he allowed to Dave Zangaro of Philly.com that the more time Bradford misses, the more the odds increase he may have to revisit that notion:

I think it depends on when he does come back and how fast we can catch him up and put him in that situation and see where he’s at, at that time. Again, nobody makes the team in April. We’re not making any roster adjustments and letting people go. It’s …

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