Legendary NFL writer isn’t sold on Philadelphia Eagles in 2020

One legendary NFL writer isn’t sold on the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020.

The Philadelphia Eagles‘ coaching staff ranks among the most tenured in the NFL and is, without question, the most stable in the NFC East. They’ve worked together and with their players longer. Their quarterback, Carson Wentz, is the best of the four starting quarterbacks in the division. Their head coach is arguably the best in the division (no disrespect to Ron Rivera or Mike Mccarthy).

Philadelphia won the NFC East in 2019 despite fielding a depleted roster more often then they would have like to. After addressing most of their needs during the free-agency period and in the most recent NFL Draft, it seems many of the major holes have been filled. All of those are reasons to be excited in you’re a “Birds” fan.

Then, there’s this. Three of Philly’s best players missed most of the 2019 season (DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, and Malik Jackson). They’ll be back in 2020. It feels like the Washington Redskins and New York Giants are a couple of years away from being consistently competitive.

That means the NFC East should come down to the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. The “Birds” could be the first NFC East team to repeat as division champions since they accomplished the same feat during a four-year run from 2001 to 2004.

One of the NFL’s most trusted voices weighs in on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been dubbed the “NFC Least” now. Maybe it’s because the NFC is so strong and has so many good teams, but longtime NFL writer Peter King of NBC Sports doesn’t seem to be drinking any green-colored Kool-Aid.

Recently, he ranked all 32 squads, and the “Birds” landed right around the middle at 15.

That isn’t disrespectful, but what might be considered to be an issue is he has the Pittsburgh Steelers five spots ahead of them and, yes, Dallas in the top ten. Cue the discussion boards, and open the debate tables. Here’s some of why he’d come to this conclusion.

"What a hard-to-read team… The Eagles were 5-7 last year and needed to win four in a row to ensure a playoff spot and did, but the beat-up offense scored 10, nine, and nine points against playoff teams in the last eight games… Wisely, (general manager) Howie Roseman decided to stock up to help the offense… Darius Slay is a heck of a pickup for the secondary, particularly with the non-division slate of quarterbacks on the way… I say Week 16, Eagles at Cowboys, is the championship game of the NFC East."

There isn’t much to criticia=ze in his thinking there. Maybe he sees the NFC East as the worst division in the conference (as so many other great minds do), but then again, the Cowboys are ninth on this list.

He explains things well, as you’d expect him to, but even if you take emotion out of the argument, question marks or none, it’s hard to create a successful argument that the Las Vegas Raiders (it’s hard to remember not to call them ‘Oakland’ sometimes) and the Buffalo Bills, right now, are better than a team many are projecting to host a playoff game in January.