Cowboys looking for knockout in free agency fight vs. Eagles

The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles battle year-round for the chance to beat the other for the division championship. This offseason is no different.

The most embarrassing moment of the 2019 season for the Dallas Cowboys was the Week 16 let down versus the Philadelphia Eagles. It cost America’s Team an NFC East division championship and caused a massive overhaul this offseason.

The organization is embarrassing the Eagles so far in free agency and the prospects of a 2020 division championship look promising. The Cowboys and Eagles have combined to win six of the past seven division championships and 2020 will come down to the two bitter rivals once again.

Head to head right now Dallas is a bit better. The NFL draft can make them straight up the better team.

A major weakness last season was the defensive line of the Cowboys in major must-win games, they simply could get run over at key times. The Week 16 game was no different, the Eagles bullied 118 yards on the ground. While the Cowboys could only muster up 54 rush yards versus the Eagles dominate front six.

The organization went out and addressed this right away. They avoided the temptation of overpaying for undersized pass-rushing defensive end Robert Quinn and focused on size. Insert defensive tackles, Gerald McCoy and Dontari Poe.

To finish the overhaul of the front four, they need to find a good-sized edge rusher in the draft. That will be a major task of the first three rounds of the draft. They have the size to eat up blockers now though and make life easy for the mega-talented duo of linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith.

The Eagles offense faced a lot of injuries to their skill players during last season and it took a herculean effort to overcome the loss of talent and still make the playoffs by quarterback Carson Wentz. The Eagles front office did Wentz no favors these past two weeks.

Only one offensive player has been signed/re-signed so far and that is the backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld. Goodbye to running back Jordan Howard, wide receiver Nelson Agholor, and offensive tackles Jason Peters and Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Somehow the Eagles have intensified the pressure on Wentz, it seemed hard to do after all the injuries last season.

The Cowboys and other defenses around the NFL will have the opportunity to gameplan for a limited amount of threats. Tight Ends Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz are tricky but not impossible to contain and an aging wide receiver Alshon Jeffery was under 500 yards in 10 games played last season.

Running back Miles Sanders is a rising star but he won’t be surprising defenses in his second NFL season. Also, he will face more attention and stacked boxes with a lack of outside pass catchers for the Eagles.

So, the Cowboys remade their weakness into a strength and the Eagles somehow sucked the life out of their offense on paper. Putting intense weight on Wentz to carry a mediocre offense once again.

The Cowboys are winning the offseason so far and have a chance to go for a knockout punch during the NFL draft next month. They are a solid addition at defensive end, cornerback, and safety away from taking a major advantage into the 2020 season over their bitter rival.

The Eagles meanwhile will be looking for weapons to add to their offense and as always are looking for long term secondary answers as they saw safety Malcolm Jenkins walk away in free agency. The addition of cornerback Darius Slay is nice but they lost their third and fifth rounders in the process.

If the Cowboys beat the Eagles in the draft it is time to get excited. New head coach Mike McCarthy would have the talent to beat the Eagles and give the team a pulse to take advantage of it. 2019, Week 16 can not be repeated ever again.