State of the NFC East: Debating whether or not the Philadelphia Eagles are for real

Who should be considered the favorite in the NFC East after Week 1?

By RJ Ochoa@rjochoa Sep 15, 2021, 7:00pm CDT

Only one team in the NFC East won in Week 1, but there is a lot of football ahead. Every week we will examine the state of the division here at Blogging The Boys and right now things are already a bit chaotic.

It was the Philadelphia Eagles who were the lone victors of the group last week (the Atlanta Falcons hardly presented legitimate competition) which made our friends at Bleeding Green Nation rather happy. Every week on the Blogging The Boys podcast network you can hear myself and BGN’s Brandon Lee Gowton discussing the division as a whole (with a heavier emphasis on the Cowboys and Eagles obviously) on the NFC East Mixtape.

You can listen to this week’s episode right here, but you also want to make sure that you are subscribe to the Blogging The Boys podcast network so that you don’t miss any of our other shows. Apple devices can subscribe right here while Spotify users can subscribe right here.

Here is where things stand with the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and Washington Football Team entering Week 2.

Philadelphia Eagles (1-0)

The Eagles did win last week, but did so against the lackluster Atlanta Falcons. There is no denying that it was an impressive performance for them and showed legitimate signs of life for a team that many figured would not contend at all this season.

While we can poke holes in the quality of their opponent you can only play who’s on your schedule. What’s more is that Philly didn’t just win, they won with authority, at least as far as the scoreboard is concerned.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts looked like a potential answer at the position for them in the long term (there is still a lot that remains to be seen) and even finished as PFF’s second-highest rated quarterback from both an offensive and passing grade standpoint. Although on the other side of that coin he also finished with the lowest ADOT (Average Depth of Target) among quarterbacks who played at least 50% of snaps aiming 3.6 yards down the field on average. The Falcons made it easy on him to check things down and hit wide open guys as evidenced by the fact that he finished first in PFF’s adjusted-completion percentage. Things won’t be that easy every week.

Defensively the Eagles were impressive as well. They were the only team in the NFL to not allow a play of over 20 yards. The Falcons are a mess everywhere, but that is undeniably impressive.

We will see how this team fares moving forward, they host the San Francisco 49ers this week, when they play some legitimate competition. We will also see them up close and personal in Week 3 when the Cowboys play at home for the first time.

New York Giants (0-1)

Being totally honest here, it is difficult to find anything nice to say about this team.

The G-Men saw the return of Saquon Barkley in Week 1 which was a nice boost in theory, but he finished the week as the least efficient running back in the NFL according to Next Gen Stats. Again, are we supposed to be surprised?

Daniel Jones turned the ball over again only adding to the notion that he is not fit to serve as the franchise quarterback for any team. Getting down to brass tacks here the Giants simply lack any sort of juice in any way, shape, or form. What’s more is that their own head coach doesn’t even know the rules in totality. You might have missed this, but Joe Judge tried to challenge a play, a touchdown from the Denver Broncos. If you are reading this Joe Judge, touchdowns are automatically reviewed and cannot be challenged. Just a tip!

New York will visit the Washington Football Team on Thursday night, we’ll get to them in a second, but despite the Football Team losing their starting quarterback for half of the season the Giants are underdogs in this game. That is insane! On a short week of all things. What a disaster.

Washington Football Team (0-1)

NFL: Los Angeles Chargers at Washington Football Team

In today’s NFL everything starts and ends with the quarterback. There were people who believed that Washington had a legitimate shot this season with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, but unfortunately (injuries suck regardless of what team they happen to) Fitzmagic was hurt in their season-opening loss against the Los Angeles Chargers and is slated to miss 6-8 weeks.

Taylor Heinicke will resume the starting position for Washington at quarterback (he started in their Wildcard loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season), but with all due respect, it is hard to see this team not losing a bunch of games between now and mid-November.

Consider the next eight weeks for a team that already had a suspect quarterback and is now down to their secondary option at the position: NYG, at BUF, at ATL, NO, KC, at GB, at DEN, BYE. Assuming Fitzpatrick does return after that stretch it will be against the aforementioned Buccaneers.

Washington’s defense is too good for them to totally bottom out, not to mention Terry McLaurin is a superstar on the rise, and we have already mentioned that they are favorites on Thursday night. Still though, it feels like the ceiling on this team has been dramatically lowered this season. Injuries suck.

Odds to win the NFC East at Week 2

It is still too early to draw any sort of real or undeniable conclusion about any of these four teams although we obviously feel strongly about a number of things. But what do the oddsmakers say?

Many believed, and still do so, that the Cowboys were the favorites to win the NFC East. They remain with the best odds to do so entering Week 2 according to our friends at BetOnline.

Dallas Cowboys............................ 3/2

Washington Football Team........... 12/5

Philadelphia Eagles........................ 14/5

New York Giants.............................. 6/1

New York will visit Washington this week and Dallas will host Philadelphia next week. We should have some interesting answers after those two games specifically.

Buckle up.