After a thrilling season, the NFL is officially over for another year. So, the team at SportsTips thought it would be a good idea to go through every team in the NFC East, and have a look at the year that was!
Dallas Cowboys
After a promising season where they won the NFC East, the Dallas Cowboys’ season once again ended in disappointment. Behind quarterback Dak Prescott, their offense scored the most points per game and amassed the most yards per game in the NFL this season.
Shifting the mindset…
Shifting the outcome…
The work STARTS NOW!#DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/nFPRyX0dmc— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) February 14, 2022
Defensively they also were impressive as they had the most turnover caused of any team in football, thanks in large part to cornerback Trevon Diggs’ 11 interceptions. From a statistical standpoint this Cowboys team should’ve been primed and ready to make a Super Bowl run, but instead they fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card playoffs 17-23, making it 26 years since they’ve advanced beyond the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Dallas has plenty of young stars from Prescott to Diggs to Defensive Rookie of the Year Micah Parsons and wide receiver sensation CeeDee Lamb. They’ll continue to be good whether head coach Mike McCarthy is there or not, but once again not being able to get over that playoff block, will continue to be a mental obstacle for this team.
New York Giants
Another year of misery for the New York Giants, as the boys in blue finished in fourth for the third time in five years and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Patience is wearing thin on quarterback Daniel Jones, who missed six games with injuries, and wasn’t terribly impressive in the other 11.
Along with Jones, the team also didn’t get the performance they were hoping for from Saquon Barkley who continued to battle injury issues and only accumulated 593 rush yards in 13 games.
“I’m a Giant for life.”
STC Thomas McGaughey couldn’t wait for the opportunity to come back.
📰: https://t.co/4L0RY8Arr9 pic.twitter.com/OkWADpAGYW
— Dan Salomone (@Dan_Salomone) February 17, 2022
Luckily after this disastrous season, they’ll have some fresh blood coming on the coaching staff, as the team fired disgruntled coach Joe Judge and brought in Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Next season will likely be the last straw for the Barkley/Jones tandem.
Luckily, Giants fans were able to see some progression on their pass defense and they got some solid play from linebackers Tae Crowder (130 tackles) and Azeez Ojulari (8 sacks). It’ll be a new era next season for the Giants, but in the meantime, there’s a lot this team needs to clean up on both sides of the ball.
Philadelphia Eagles
One season after finishing dead last in the NFC East, the Philadelphia Eagles brought in the Nick Sirianni era with a playoff berth and plenty for fans to get excited about. Young quarterback Jalen Hurts looked impressive, as did their linebacker core of Alex Singleton and T.J. Edwards.
Next stop: Canton, Ohio!@ProFootballHOF | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/exXXE6FUhF
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 11, 2022
This Eagles team will have a lot to build on going forward, but if they’re going to be a serious threat in the future, they must win games against top opponents. In the last week of the season, they were destroyed by division rivals the Dallas Cowboys, losing 26-51.
They then, unfortunately, brought that energy into the postseason as they were no match for the defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, losing 15-31. It was a positive season for the Eagles no doubt, but they’ll still need to add some bigger names if they want to hang with a competitive NFC.
Washington Commanders (Previously Washington Football Team)
Whereas the Philadelphia Eagles overachieved this season, the Washington Football Team (now Commanders) did the exact opposite. After a 7-9 2020 season that still found them in the playoffs, Washington was expected by almost everyone to grow on that season and return to the postseason in 2021.
Unfortunately, they looked the exact same: a subpar offense and a defense that fell short of expectations (due in large part to Chase Young only playing nine games) were this team’s downfalls.
Let’s ride pic.twitter.com/NT6tUyOhUO
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) February 14, 2022
While they didn’t scare most of their playoff-bound opponents this year, they did have a nice week 10 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, proving this team isn’t totally lost. As good as quarterback Taylor Heinicke looked at times this year, he might not be the long-term answer if this team wants to make a serious playoff run.
Next season their defense will have Young back, and have top talents on the line in Jonathan Allen and Montez Sweat, making them one of the league’s top defensive lines. Still, the defense was below average in causing turnovers, so they’ll need those linemen to step up and create next year. If they can do that and get a bit more dynamic of an offense, they could overtake the Eagles and get a playoff bid next year.
Even though the season has finished, we’ve got you covered with all the latest information on the NFL! We keep you as up to date as possible, so you don’t miss any of the action this off-season.
