The Dallas Cowboys ended the 2020 season with a disappointing 6-10 record and finished third in the terrible NFC East. The only team that did worse in the division was the Philadelphia Eagles, who ended the year with a brutal 4-11-1 record.
It would be hard to believe the first paragraph just three years ago, after the Eagles won the Super Bowl LII, ending their impressive 13-3 regular season. That year, Dallas narrowly missed the playoffs after finishing second in the division with a 9-7 record.
Another headline that would have been impossible to predict at the time would have been announced recently, the Eagles swapped their starting quarterback Carson Wentz for the Indianapolis Colts.
This trade has a handful of profound implications for the NFC East and the Dallas Cowboys. First, and perhaps most important, it means that the division title is likely to be even more contested for Dallas and the rest of the teams at NFC East. It also means that if the Cowboys manage to re-sign quarterback Dak Prescott, they will almost certainly reach 2021 with the division’s top scorer by a significant margin.
Another potential consequence of this move is that it makes the Eagles more likely to select a quarterback with the sixth overall choice in the NFL Draft. This possibility should concern and delight Dallas fans because it means that some of the teams’ possible targets, like cornerback Patrick Surtain II, have a greater chance of falling for them in the tenth overall choice.
Wentz, who stayed on the bench last year after leading the Eagles with a 3-8-1 record in his twelve games, struggled hard last season. The former Pro Bowl defender led the league in interceptions in 2020 with fifteen, despite not playing a quarter of the year. The first general choice number two in the 2016 NFL Draft was for years in discussions as the best defender in NFC East before his unfortunate performance last year.
Given Wentz’s poor performance last season, it seemed inevitable that Dallas would reach 2021 with the best defender in the division if he managed to bring Prescott back, but even veteran reserve defender Andy Dalton played better than he did last year.
However, Wentz’s presence in the Eagles has always provided Cowboy rivals with the potential to burst, given his extraordinary talent and the heights he reached in 2017, when he was legitimately in the league’s MVP discussion before getting hurt.
With the end of this threat, the Eagles stay with Jalen Hurts as their likely starting quarterback, unless they use their choice in the first round to choose a flag. Either way, Dallas should be more motivated than ever to strike a deal with Prescott. With NFC East apparently even more up for grabs, Team America should be in a good position to potentially make it to the playoff next season.
The Eagles swapping Wentz is yet another symbol of the teams’ rapid decline and should further motivate the Dallas Cowboys to fight for the division title. This news is sure to shake the NFL and should be a development that America’s Team fans should keep in mind as the NFL draft approaches in the coming months.