May 14, 2024
At this point in the offseason, NFL rosters are pretty much set, at least in terms of players expected to make any kind of reasonable impact. And so, let's take a look at the NFC East, and determine who has the best players at each position. We'll start with the offense.
Jalen Hurts was the easy choice here a year ago after he was the MVP runner-up to Patrick Mahomes in 2022. However, Prescott very clearly had the better season as a passer in 2023.
| NFCE QBs | Comp-Att (Comp %) | Yards (YPA) | TD-INT | Rating |
| Dak Prescott | 410-590 (69.5%) | 4516 (7.7) | 36-9 | 105.9 |
| Jalen Hurts | 352-538 (65.4%) | 3858 (7.2) | 23-15 | 89.1 |
It will be interesting to see if the Commanders' Jayden Daniels will get consideration here next year.
Barkley finished fourth in the NFL in 2022 with 1,312 rushing yards. In 2023, the Giants cycled through three ineffective quarterbacks, and there were times when Brian Daboll just gave the ball to Barkley over and over because he did not trust his passing attack. In 14 games, Barkley carried 247 times for 962 yards and 6 TDs, with a yards per carry average of 3.89. While 3.89 yards per carry isn't good, it was a hell of a lot better than all the other Giants' backs, none of whom rushed for better than 2.82 yards per carry.
Whatever it is that you think of Barkley and the contract the Eagles gave him this offseason, there's no question that he's the best back in the NFC East.
Lamb and Brown are obvious. It’s the third spot that is debatable between McLaurin and DeVonta Smith. McLaurin has four straight seasons with at least 1,000 yards, which is particularly impressive given the crap quarterbacks he has had to play with, so I gave him the nod.
In his second season, Ferguson had 71 catches for 761 yards and 5 TDs. Dallas Goedert had 59 catches for 592 yards and 3 TDs in 2023, and he has missed eight games over the last two seasons.
Andrew Thomas is a very good left tackle, but Mailata had a stellar season in 2023, while Thomas missed seven games and still gave up more sacks, per PFF.
Johnson remains the best right tackle in the NFL.
Martin is still a star player after 10 years in the NFL. Dickerson was a Pro Bowl selection in 2022 and 2023, and is currently the highest-paid guard in the NFL. I would have Dickerson marginally ahead of the Cowboys' Tyler Smith, who also deserves a mention here.
It used to be easy to just plug Jason Kelce in here and move on, but no more. Biadasz is far from a special player, but he has the most starting experience in the division, by far:
| NFC East projected starting centers | Starts |
| Tyler Biadasz, Commanders | 53 |
| John Michael Schmitz, Giants | 13 |
| Cam Jurgens, Eagles | 11 |
| Cooper Beebe (?), Cowboys | 0 |
Biadasz is a prime candidate to be replaced next year.
Quarterback: Jalen Hurts, Eagles
Running back: Austin Ekeler, Commanders
Wide receiver: DeVonta Smith, Eagles, Malik Nabers, Giants, Darius Slayton, Giants
Tight end: Dallas Goedert, Eagles
Offensive tackle: Andrew Thomas, Giants, Jermaine Eluemunor, Giants
Guard: Tyler Smith, Cowboys, Sam Cosmi, Commanders
Center: Cam Jurgens, Eagles
We'll give two points for first-team nods, one point for second-team. Good? Good. I mean, who cares?
| Team | First-team | Second-team | Totals |
| Eagles | 5 | 4 | 14 |
| Cowboys | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Commanders | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Giants | 0 | 4 | 4 |
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
