Rich’s Pick to Win the NFC East This Season Is….?

Rich usually anchors these division predictions. For the NFC East, he went first.

He started with the teams he likes but won't pick. John Harbaugh is going to "plus this team up" with the Giants, "cuz that's what Harbaughs do when they join new teams," and Rich is excited for Jayden Daniels' return in Washington. None of it changes his read of the race. "This is a choice between the Cowboys and the Eagles to win the division."

Washington landed fourth, and Rich was upfront that it's about the offense. Chase Daniel, a former teammate of David Blough, has said that of all the new coordinator and quarterback combinations, Daniels and Blough is the one he likes best. The reports Rich is reading say otherwise. "They can't block anyone in practice. They can't block anybody in team scrimmages. They can't block anybody in the preseason."

With Bill Croskey-Merritt at the top of the running back chart and the offense still largely unseen, the Commanders stay fourth until Rich sees something different. The Giants took third, with a chance at a wild card if they put it all together.

Then the Eagles, a team Rich warned you look past "at your own peril." Saquon followed a monster season with less. A.J. Brown is gone. "But every single time you think that they're no longer the same sum of their parts, they just beat the crap out of you."

Everyone Rich has spoken to who saw the Eagles in person this summer called them the biggest team they've ever seen. Offensive line, defensive line, defensive backs. "Everybody is physically bigger than most."

That leaves Dallas, a team Rich has been talking up since the start of the new league year, and he put his money where his mouth is. "I think this is real. I think the coach is real. I think the roster is real. I think the defense has 100% been improved to the point where the offense should be enough."

He went a step further. "The defense is going to be at times dominant. How about that? I'll say that word." His final order: Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, Commanders, with the top two definitely in the tournament and a third playoff team in doubt.

Chris answered with "meet the new graphic, same as the old graphic." His order was identical, and his worry about Washington ran deeper. He is very concerned the Commanders might be a bottom five team in the league this year, despite Daniels being talented and healthy.

His case for Dallas starts with offense. "In the National Football League, you got to be able to score points." The Cowboys proved they could run the ball last year, and Chris admitted Javonte Williams "really made me eat it" after he was skeptical of the deal. Add two number one receivers, one of the best receiving tight ends, and a quarterback Chris believes in. "I think Dak is awesome."

On Philadelphia, Chris pointed to injuries on both lines last year as part of why Saquon struggled, on top of the regression that was coming after a 2,000-yard season, and expects him to remind people he is still an elite back. The real question for Chris is Jalen Hurts and the passing game. "They have enough to get 10 wins. I don't think it's enough to win the division."

TJ went the same way, in his own words. The "Washington Football Team" at four, the "little giants" at three, and the Eagles at two, with a first-time play caller and no A.J. Brown. He did break from the crowd on the quarterback. "I don't understand why people poo poo Jalen Hurts so much, man." TJ thinks Hurts is really exceptional.

For Dallas at number one, TJ pointed at the defense. "Defense gave up 30 points a game last year, Rich. Imagine if they just give up 20 this year with the offense that Chris said was elite."

Somebody did warn TJ that every time he says WFT, Commanders fans hear something else.

That sets up a week one that Washington will take personally. Before the Giants and Cowboys close out Sunday night, it is Washington and Philadelphia in the late window on Fox, and as Rich put it, everybody in Washington will be hearing exactly what the show just said.