Eagles, Cowboys Have Dominated NFC East

The path each team will have to travel to get back on top in 2020 will become known on Thursday night when the NFL releases its schedule

The NFC East has been ruled by the Eagles and Cowboys.

Back and forth they have gone throughout the last decade, interrupted only sporadically by the New York Giants, who found a way to the top of the heap in 2011, and the Washington Redskins, who won the division twice in the last decade in 2012 and 2015.

Other than that, the Eagles and Cowboys have dominated.

My SI colleague Mike Fisher, who covers the Cowboys, and I discussed the dominance in the video and what the Eagles and Dallas did during the offseason to try to get a leg up on the other:

That’s not to say that the Giants or Redskins won't be a factor in this year’s race when all is said and done. Both appear to have improved their rosters and have new head coaches in place, but lately the division champs have resided in Philly or Dallas.

The Eagles have owned the division more than Dallas, which also has a new head coach, winning it four times since 2010 and have even managed a Super Bowl title in that run.

Neither team, however, has found a way to wear the division crown in back-to-back years during their supremacy. The last time there was a back-to-back winner of the NFC East was 16 years ago, when the Eagles won in 2003 and 2004.

The Eagles are the current defending champs, dethroning Dallas’ one-year stay at the top, and on Thursday night we will get a look at the road each team will take on their quest to win it again when the NFL schedule is released.

The schedule is supposed to be unveiled at 8 p.m. on the NFL Network, but teams can begin putting it out 30 minutes prior to that, and that is what the Eagles are expected to do.

Once it is released, the time-honored tradition among fans everywhere of predicting their favorite teams’ wins and losses will begin.

Those predictions are a lot like mock drafts in that they are fun to ponder and discuss, but rarely play out the way originally constructed.

Already, there have been leaks.

One has the Eagles opening their season in primetime on Sunday night, Sept. 10, at the Pittsburgh Steelers than the Eagles hosting the Baltimore Ravens in Week Three at 1 p.m.

Of course, any kind of season is all conjecture at this point due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so hold off for now on any thoughts you might have about barreling west on the PA Turnpike to take in the opener because there may not be any fans allowed within a several-mile radius of Heinz Field or any field for that matter for nobody knows how long.

The schedule release will provide some excitement in the short-term but the long-term still looks very murky.