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The NFC East- What In The World Has Happened to this Division?

The NFC East- What In The World Has Happened to this Division?

2019 Final Standings:

Eagles 9-7

Cowboys 8-8

Giants 4-12

Redskins 3-13

In 2020, all but one of the division’s teams will have new coaches: Mike McCarthy will be the Cowboys’ head coach, Ron Rivera will be the Redskins’ head coach, and Joe Judge will be the Giants’ head coach. (Hmmm....MM, RR, and JJ...or Double M, Double R, and Double J.)

What happened to this once proud, respected, tough, competitive division?

Back in the day, coaches like Landry, Allen, Vermeil, Gibbs, Parcells, Johnson, and Reid once patrolled the sidelines. The rivalries that were created back then resembled border wars whenever these coaches’ teams faced once another. No matter what the records were, divisional games were often close battles, wars of attrition, and downright fierce. Imagine these individual battles: Meredith vs Jurgensen. Staubach vs. Kilmer. Charley Taylor vs. Charlie Waters. Larry Brown vs. Ron Johnson. Theismann vs. Simms. Danny White vs. Ron Jaworski. Bill Bergey vs. The World. Troy Aikman vs. Randall Cunningham. The Hogs vs Lawrence Taylor and Company. Tony Dorsett vs. Wilbert Montgomery. Drew Pearson vs. Terry Jackson. Roy Green vs. Darrell Green. Harold Carmichael vs. Dennis Thurman. John Riggins vs. Joe Morris. Dexter Manley vs. Phil Simms. The Smurfs vs. Thurman’s Thieves. Emmitt Smith vs. Andre Waters. Jimmy Johnson vs. Buddy Ryan. Joe Gibbs vs. Bill Parcells. The list goes on and on and on. Players like Harvey Martin, who hated the Redskins with almost unheard passion; Roger Wherli, who tormented NFC East QBs like no other with timely interceptions; Kenny Houston, who was like a thorn in the Cowboys’ side constantly; Harry Carson, a one-man wrecking crew for the Giants before Taylor arrived; and Jack Pardee, probably the greatest of all Redskins’ LBs, helped make the NFC East one opposing teams had to tread carefully against. Receivers like Roy Jefferson, Mel Gray, Mike Quick, Tony Hill, Art Monk, Earnest Gray, Charlie Brown, Fred Barnett, Gary Clark, Micheal Irvin, and the previously mentioned Drew Pearson, Roy Green, and Charley Taylor put absolute fear within their division and outside of it as well. And the NFC East has had an abundance of great QBs- Meredith, Jurgenson, Staubach, Hart, Simms, Theismann, Jaworski, Lomax, White, Cunningham, Aikman, and McNabb, to name a few.

Defensively, one has to start with the Doomsday Defense of the 70s and 80s- Lilly, Cole, Jordan, Howley, Renfro, Green, Harris, Waters, Martin, White, Jones, Dutton, Henderson, Lewis, Walls, Downs, etc. However the Giants’ defenses of the 80s weren’t no joke, either- Taylor, Banks, Carson, Martin, Marshall, Jeter, Jackson, Kinard, etc. How about the Over the Hill Gang of the 70s- Pardee, Hanburger, Talbert, Biggs, Fischer, Bass, McLinton, Houston, Owens, etc. Then there were the 90s Eagles- White, Brown, Simmons, Joyner, Allen, Waters, Evans, Hopkins, etc. The Cowboys also had a pretty good defense in the 90s led by Charles Haley and company, as did the Redskins in the 80s with Dexter Manley and friends making things hard on opposing teams.

The NFC East was always good for two or three teams fighting for control of the division, and it usually sent more than one team to the playoffs almost every year from the 70s on through the 90s. So what happened? Why has the NFC East deteriorated to this: a Redskins’ team that has had more dysfunction in it than the last 10 years combined, a Giants’ team which has totally lost its way, a Cowboys’ team which seems mediocre half the time, and an Eagles’ team which, if not for an abundance of injuries, would probably be greater than what it is now?

I've got three (or four, or five) answers to that question:

Dan Snyder (Bruce Allen)

John Mara (Dave Gettleman)

Jerry Jones