The Eagles continue to be the favorites to win the NFC East and even repeat as Super Bowl champions in 2018. They finished 13-3 in 2017 and won the Super Bowl led by backup QB Nick Foles after starter Carson Wentz went down in the last month of the season with a ACL injury.
At the NFL owners meetings last week, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett was asked what must be done in order to close the game between his team and the Eagles in order for them to be a legit threat in the division again. He stressed winning division games and Dallas needed to just focus on themselves, per ESPN.
“Winning your division is important. Being competitive with the teams in your division is important. You got to win those games,” said Garrett. “If you want to win the NFC, you’ve got to start by doing everything you can to win the NFC East. Then you have to take the next step beyond that. So, it’s a process that you go through. For me, teams get in trouble when they are so focused on somebody else. Focus on yourself and the kind of team you want to build.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that his team not making the playoffs doesn’t’ create a large gap between them and the Eagles as the teams are both very similar on offense but Philly has more key names on defense.
“I think that if the gap is defined as them winning the Super Bowl and us not even getting in the playoffs, then we’ve got to close the gap,” said Jones. “I think that we should’ve been in the playoffs. We weren’t. But I don’t believe that us not being in the playoffs this past year is the size of the gap.”
“They’ve got a team that mirrors us in a lot of respects. “I like a lot of things that we have that they have. We’ve got a running game, offense and quarterback that I’m so proud of for looking ahead and building off of. They probably have more, to say the least, they probably have more names on defense. When I say names, just say they probably have what we’d like to continue to get to. But we’ve got some guys that I think we can get to there.”
One major factor that Dallas must improve on is their offensive line in order to close the gap between them and the Eagles. They helped Dallas become 13-3 and Super Bowl contenders in 2016 and they have to revert back to that success to help QB Dak Prescott shine again. This concern could very well be addressed in this month’s NFL Draft.
