May 21, 2018

All NFC East team: Offense edition

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Heading into the 2018 season, the Philadelphia Eagles are the clear favorites to repeat as NFC East champs, with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Washington Redskins trailing behind.

Here's a look at the 2018 All-NFC East team, if that actually existed.

• QB Carson Wentz, Eagles: Wentz likely would have been MVP of the league had he not torn his ACL Week 14 in Los Angeles. He led the Eagles to an 11-2 record, giving them home field advantage and allowing Nick Foles to take care of the rest. In terms of building a franchise long-term, Wentz is clearly the top choice here by a country mile in the NFC East.

• RB Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys: In 25 career games, Zeke has 2614 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns. He's a major character risk, but that production speaks for itself.

• WR Odell Beckham Jr., Giants: In 47 career games, OBJ has 4424 receiving yards and 38 touchdowns. Copy and paste that last character/production sentence above about Zeke right here.

• WR Alshon Jeffery, Eagles: Jeffery is the best of the rest, as the Cowboys and Redskins have nothing worth fearing on the outside at wide receiver.

• Slot WR Nelson Agholor, Eagles: I strongly considered the Redskins' Jamison Crowder here, who is a natural slot receiver and has very good production (192-2240-12) his first three years in the league. However, Agholor broke out in a big way last season, besting Crowder's numbers and showing more upside.

• TE Zach Ertz, Eagles: The Redskins' Jordan Reed would be in the conversation here if he could stay healthy. He can't, so this is a runaway for Ertz. We'll also just quickly note here that Evan Engram put up good numbers (64-722-6) as a rookie.

• LT Trent Williams, Redskins: If you prefer Tyron Smith or Jason Peters here, I wouldn't argue much, as the NFC East has the best group of left tackles in the NFL, by far. The only sure thing here is that the Giants have the clear-cut No. 4 guy in Nate Solder, who is also the highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL.

• LG Zack Martin, Cowboys: Martin plays RG for the Cowboys, but we'll move him over here to LG, because he and Brandon Brooks are very clearly the two best guards in the division, and then there's a big dropoff.

• C Jason Kelce, Eagles: The Cowboys' Travis Frederick is perhaps a more consistent player, but Kelce can do things at center that no other player in the league can do, from an athleticism standpoint. He was the best center in the league in 2017.

• RG Brandon Brooks, Eagles: As noted above, Martin and Brooks are clearly the two best guards in the division.

• RT Lane Johnson, Eagles: Johnson faced a murderers' row of elite pass rushers in 2017, and he only gave up one sack on the season. He was the best offensive tackle (not just right tackle) in the NFL.

• K Dan Bailey, Cowboys: Bailey was at one time the most accurate kicker in NFL history, but he was dreadful down the stretch last season after returning from a groin injury. We'll chalk up his poor finish to the season to his gimpy groin.