In the next two weeks, we will be unveiling our All-Division teams for preseason. They were largely composed by a panel of one, although there were significant input from the writers and editors at CBSSports.com after I took a first run on the schedules on my own.
We will start today with the NFC East, and then through the rest of the conference through the week. Next week it goes on to the AFC.
Offensive skill positions
QB: Dak Prescott (DAL)
RB: Ezekiel Elliott (DAL), Saquon Barkley (NYG)
WR: Amari Cooper (DAL), Michael Gallup (DAL), Terry McLaurin (WAS)
TE: Zach Ertz (PHI), Evan Engram (NYG)
Could you make an argument that Carson Wentz is the better overall player than Prescott? Wis. But can you make a serious argument that Wentz will be in a better position to succeed in 2020, or that he is just as likely as Prescott to play all 16 games? I do not think you can do that. Wentz may have the better offensive line (although if Joe Looney or Connor McGovern solidify downtown in Dallas, it gets pretty close even), but Prescott has significantly better weapons, especially with wide receivers. He comes from a 4,902-yard, 30-touchdown season and he can have better weapons and has certainly better coaching this year.
Elliott and Barkley are two of the most complete backs in the league. They can handle any 300-plus touch fairly easily, although they do so in far different styles. Elliott rarely ever produces negative plays, which is probably his greatest strength. Barkley is more hit-and-miss on a carry-to-carry basis, but has one of the highest explosive play rates in the league. Barkley is also a receiver from the field, and Elliott is also capable in that area.
Dallas has the two best receivers in the division, with Cooper and Gallup each coming out on 1,100-plus-yard campaigns. They work in different ways, with Cooper, a route-running technician and Gallup a more of a physical force, but they have each shown excellent chemistry with Prescott. With Kellen Moore returning as Mike McCarthy’s offensive coordinator, they should be asked to do similar things as they were a year ago, and should see similar success. McLaurin, meanwhile, gets the nod over New York City’s solid trio because he’s the obvious No. 1 and we do not know which Giant is Daniel Jones’ preference. McLaurin is coming off a very nice rookie season: only 15 rookie wideouts since the merger have matched his 58-919-7 line or more.
Ertz is probably the most consistent tight end in football. Over the past five years, he has gone for 75-853-2 (2015), 78-816-4 (2016), 74-824-8 (2017), 116-1163-8 (2018), and 88-916 -6 (2019). He remains Wentz’s top scorer, and he’s a damn good guy. Engram is the next most talented tight end in the division, and having him in this slot (unlike Blake Jarwin, who last season was significantly better than Jason Witten on a per-snap and per-route basis) is a representation of faith that he can finally stay healthy, and often an attempt to make it exist.
Offensive Line
OT: Tyron Smith (DAL), Lane Johnson (PHI)
OG: Zack Martin (DAL), Brandon Scherff (WAS)
OC: Jason Kelce (PHI)
The approaches were easy. Smith has been one of the little handful of best left-handed approaches in football for nearly a decade, and the same has been true of Johnson on the right. You should consider Jason Peters and / or Trent Williams for the approach to slots, but Peters is now a guard and Williams is on the 49ers. That made things very simple.
The choices for interior lines were also pretty easy. Martin is considered the best as the second best guard in football along with Quenton Nelson, so his place was guaranteed. Brandon Brooks had the other protective spot until he tore his Achilles, at which point Scherff became the obvious choice to replace him. Kelce once had to compete with Frederick for the pivot place on these types of teams, but with Frederick retired, there is no other center in the division that is in Kelce’s class.
Defensive front
EDGE: Demarcus Lawrence (DAL), Brandon Graham (PHI)
IDL: Fletcher Cox (PHI), Dexter Lawrence (NYG)
LB: Leighton Vander Esch (DAL), Ryan Kerrigan (WAS), Thomas Davis (WAS)
Lawrence’s case dropped last year, but he was still a high-profile player on a defense that desperately needed one. He’s a great running defender and an excellent pass rusher, and nothing about that should change in 2020. Graham, meanwhile, remains one of the more underrated edge guys in the league. Since his snap rate reached 70 percent several years ago, he has been as solid as they come.
Cox has a good argument for the best non-Aaron Donald interior defensive lineman in the game. He is an absolute force that penetrates from the interior, and he consistently makes plays in the backfield. Lawrence is moving away from an effective rookie season, where he mostly excelled as a run-stuffer, but showed more pass-rough juice than expected, seeing his profile advance.
Vander Esch says he has problems with the neck that plagued him last season, and if that is true, there is no reason to expect that he will not be an absolute monster again. He is a fantastic covering man and with Dallas now betting on Dontari Poe to eat blockers along the defensive line, LVE should have more freedom to stream to the ball. We’ll head over to cheat a bit by having Kerrigan at linebacker. Sue me. He’s good. It came down to Thomas Davis, Blake Martinez, David Mayo, and Jaylon Smith for the final linebacker spot, and Davis’ coverage skills won the day.
Defensive Backfield
CB: Darius Slay (PHI), James Bradberry (NYG), Nickell Robey-Coleman (PHI)
SAF: Landon Collins (WAS), Xavier Woods (DAL)
This is not a strong division if you are looking for defensive behind talent. It gets really thin, and the top-end stars are not necessarily as good as in some other divisions.
However, Slay has been a very good corner for a while now, and a change of scenery to a team that A) is actually good at; and B) not coached by Matt Patricia (with whom he clearly did not get along) should do him good. I would say that Bradberry is underrated, but he has just paid off with one of the biggest cornerback contracts in the league, so that may no longer be the case. But he has worked over the past few years as a shadow cornerback in the NFC South, one of the toughest jobs in the NFL. Robey-Coleman is just a solid locksmith.
Collins is a prototype safety of a box, a wrecking ball that comes downhill to make plays in the run game and solid if not spectacular in coverage against backs and tight ends. Woods has yet to fulfill the promise of playing he showed during his collegiate career, but he has been an average or better starter in Dallas for three years and should be freed to make more plays within a defensive schedule that is not very vanilla. is if they are someone they have used.
