Could the Eagles Reclaim the NFC East Title in 2024?
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00:00Of all the quirky stats in the NFL, one of the ones that
00:06remains true season over season and we have not had a repeat
00:09winner in this division since 03, 04. We just keep rotating
00:14it 19, 18, 19 years in a row now. What are the expectations
00:19that maybe we get a repeat winner this time around? It
00:23looks like we're gonna have it last year and then the Philly
00:25collapse made it not so. So, do you like a repeat winner this
00:29season? I don't. I don't. In fact, I bet some nice odds. I
00:33got like plus 230. I think you could still get plus 180 on it
00:37for the Philadelphia Eagles to finish in first place in the
00:40NFC East and the Dallas Cowboys to finish in second place. Some
00:43books have the one to exact the offering. I think that the
00:47Philadelphia Eagles are more poised. I think one of the
00:50biggest problems for the Philadelphia Eagles last year,
00:52although, you know, record wise, I wrote a lot about this
00:56in my book about how their season started compared to the
00:592022 season when they went to the Super Bowl. Both teams
01:03started ten and one. You say, hey, these teams are both on
01:06the right trajectory. Same trajectory. Last year's
01:09Philadelphia Eagles looked almost nothing like the 2022
01:12version 2022 version. When I ran back my numbers on that team,
01:17you actually had to like as we were analyzing the Super Bowl
01:20of we were out in Arizona. I believe we had to strip away
01:23their fourth quarters because they were leading by so many
01:25points through the first half and through the third quarter
01:29that they were just running ball doing nothing in the fourth
01:32quarter. So their stats look like all these teams are pretty
01:34run first team. But when in reality, they were a past first
01:37team that was aggressively trying to build these they
01:39jumped out on opponents early. The 2023 version last year's
01:43version of the Philadelphia Eagles did not do that whatsoever.
01:46In fact, they were trailing more at halftime. They had to
01:48come back. They had to play all four quarters of games far
01:51more frequently last season. And one of the reasons in my
01:55opinion was their coordinators, you know, their coordinators.
01:58They lost both of them after they went to the Super Bowl.
02:01And so they replaced them in-house last season last season.
02:05Those coordinators on offense and on defense did not do a
02:08very good job whatsoever. And so this year they went mercenary
02:12style. They went outside the building and brought in two
02:14hired guns. We're going to have a much more aggressive
02:17Philadelphia Eagles team this upcoming year. I think on both
02:20sides of the football and then how he does with how he does
02:23he brought in some talent. He's got some better players
02:26there. They're a little bit more balanced. They have a at
02:29least from a namesake, a stronger run game, a stronger run
02:34focus with Saquon Barkley there in the backfield to give
02:37that added threat. And this is a team that should be able
02:41to have better success. I think Jalen Hurts was a little
02:44bit banged up last year as well. So he's a little bit healthier
02:47and they're just more improved at all levels of pretty much
02:51their entire roster with one glaring exception and that is
02:54along the offensive line where they lost Jason Kelsey and Jason
02:58Kelsey was a huge part of that tush push which I ran numbers
03:02on that and the tush push alone on fourth and one there were
03:0697 plays where Jalen Hurts snuck the football over the last
03:10three seasons. Those 97 plays accounted for more rushing EPA
03:16with those 97 than every single other team's entire rushing
03:20attack over the last three years. That's how efficient that
03:24play was for the Philadelphia Eagles. If they can get something
03:27close to that without Jason Kelsey, they'll probably be
03:30fine. If that drops off a tremendous amount because Jason
03:33Kelsey is not there at that spearhead of that tush push along
03:37the offensive line, then they could step back there and
03:40they're going to have to figure out other ways. But I still
03:42think that they are going to win the NFC East because I think
03:46the Dallas Cowboys are just a little bit too fragile from a
03:49roster build perspective. I don't think they have the depth.
03:52I don't think they have the talent as spread out as much and
03:56then we can talk about their defense if you want to Mike or
04:00if we need to move on but their defense they lost their defense
04:03coordinator and they thrived so much on all the takeaways that
04:07I don't know if they're going to be able to get those this
04:09season. Three straight years where they were plus 10 in
04:12turnover margin or better. That's happened only eight times
04:16in the last two decades where a team has gone three straight
04:18years at plus 10 turnover margin or better and none of those
04:22teams had a double-digit positive turnover margin in that
04:26fourth season. And in fact, the average is only plus four. So
04:29if you take away six turnover margin difference from the
04:32Dallas Cowboys that way they're winning the same number of
04:35games in 2024.