A late season swoon last year cost the Cowboys a shot at their first NFC East title since 1998, and Tony Romo's muff in the first round of the playoffs sent Dallas packing into the offseason on a sour note. With Wade Phillips now on the sidelines in place of the Tuna, Bill Parcells, the Pokes and Romo look for better things in 2007.
Are we Romo?
2007 NFL Preview - NFC East
That’s the question Dallas Cowboys supporters are asking themselves this summer. Terrell Owens may have made all the headlines, but the real story in the NFC East last year was the way Tony Romo supplanted Drew Bledsoe as the Dallas starting quarterback. Nobody in the division could hold a candle to Romo in 2006 -- not Jeff Garcia, not Tiki Barber, and certainly not anyone associated with the Redskins. Will a full season of Romo be enough for America’s Team to regain its swagger?
Not according to the futures market. The Cowboys (9-7 straight up, 8-7-1 against the spread in 2006) aren’t favored to win the NFC East. On a team with not many weaknesses to speak of, Romo appears to be both the problem and the solution. His Pro-Bowl rookie season was inconsistent: 12 touchdowns and five interceptions in his first six starts, followed by seven TDs and eight picks in his last six games.
Bill Parcells showed a lot of faith in Romo, yet the former Division I-AA standout should benefit from Parcells’ departure. The new offense, with coordinator Jason Garrett calling the shots, is expected to feature Romo’s cannon arm early and often, with Owens and Terry Glenn the lucky targets.
Romo will also enjoy playing behind an offensive line bolstered by free agent Leonard Davis, formerly of Arizona, and third-round pick James Marten out of Boston College. Meanwhile, the defense should show improvement as coach Wade Phillips installs his version of the 3-4 and Ken Hamlin plugs the gap at safety. This is definitely a Cowboys team on the rise.
The Philadelphia Eagles (10-6 SU, 8-7-1 ATS in 2006) will have something to say about how far Dallas rises. They’re the NFC East favorites on the futures market, having twice beaten Dallas in convincing fashion last year, once with Bledsoe under center, once with Romo. Like the folks in Big D, Eagles supporters are pointing at a full season with No. 1 pivot Donovan McNabb at the helm. There is one problem with that outlook: McNabb has yet to play at anything close to full health since taking the Eagles to the Super Bowl to cap off his MVP-quality 2004 campaign.
Even with him in the lineup, Philly went just 5-5 SU and ATS before McNabb tore up his knee and Garcia saved the day. Now Garcia has a starting job in Tampa Bay; A.J. Feeley, Kelly Holcomb and second-round pick Kevin Kolb will fight for McNabb’s leftovers in 2007.
McNabb deserves better. When healthy, he’s one of the truly elite quarterbacks in the league. But he and his Eagles teammates have been consumed by the injury bug over the years, and they don’t even have Veterans Stadium to blame anymore. Jevon Kearse was lost for most of the 2006 season, also to a knee injury, and he didn’t look anything like his usual freakish self during last month’s team sessions. Given Kearse’s questionable offseason habits, and the exodus of free agents like wideout Donte’ Stallworth and safety Michael Lewis, it appears the Eagles are due for a downgrade.
Much the same can be said for the New York Giants (8-8 SU, 7-8-1 ATS). The favorites to win the division last year couldn’t even make the playoffs, and team morale is withering under the iron fist of coach Tom Coughlin. Linebacker LaVar Arrington and offensive tackle Luke Petitgout were both given the heave-ho after failing physicals; Petitgout, now with Tampa Bay, went on record with his belief that he’d still be a Giant if Ernie Accorsi were still general manager.
Now that Accorsi has retired, that job belongs to Jerry Reese, the first African-American GM in the history of the league. His first draft got good reviews from most football pundits, but Reese loses marks for not adequately addressing the gaping Petitgout-sized hole on the left side of the O-line. That’s the last thing mistake-prone quarterback Eli Manning needs: a clear path to his blind side.
As toxic as Coughlin’s presence appears to be in Jersey, he might (gulp) be a better coach than Joe Gibbs at this point. Gibbs has yet to regain his magic touch since rejoining the Washington Redskins (5-11 SU, 5-9-2 ATS); the workload of today’s head coaches is somewhere between intern doctor and sweatshop seamstress, so Gibbs has promoted offensive coordinator Al Saunders to 'Associate Head Coach - Offense.' What does it mean? Not much; Saunders ran the offense last year.
The problem in Washington, as it has been in recent years, is plugging the right players into the program. The ‘Skins have repeatedly gone bust on the free agent market, and the draft hasn’t gone too well, either. This year’s crop has a potential stud safety in LaRon Landry, but he was their only pick on Day One, and plays one of the few positions Washington didn’t need help at. This team is unbearably weak in the trenches, both on offense and defense.
It’ll take a major leap from sophomore QB Jason Campbell to salvage anything from 2007. Is he Romo? Don’t bet on it.
i remenber last year mid-season, nobody seemed to want to take ownership of this division. until the Cowboys finally got a little traction towards the end but the spun out in the playoffs as mentioned above. It'll be interesting to see if this year one of these teams gets out of the gates well from the start.
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2007 NFC East Preview
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