NFC East Coaching Moves Should Make Things Interesting for Eagles, Cowboys

The NFC East should be even more familiar to each other in the 2024 season.

PHILADELPHIA - Once a heated rivalry, the annual meetings between Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East over recent seasons have taken a back seat in the division.

That landscape was largely fueled by the ineptitude of former Washington owner Daniel Snyder, who managed to turn a proud franchise into a laughing stock in under a quarter century with poor play on the field out-lapped by controversy off of it, featuring everything from financial improprieties to allegations of sexual misconduct, bullying, and other inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

When a Josh Harris-led group won control of the currently-named Commanders for just over $6 billion, it figured to make things tougher moving forward for not only the Eagles but also the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

For Philadelphia and New York, the Harris-led ownership group is also a bit incestuous because the billionaire is also the managing partner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, something that means Harris has to somehow play up his allegiances up and down the Northeast I-95 corridor depending on the needs of the day.

For the Eagles, a stoked-up rivalry could be further fueled by Washington’s hiring of Brian Johnson, Philadelphia’s former offensive coordinator who was scapegoated after the Eagles failed to reach expectations in the 2023 season.

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Johnson will be in a layered position between quarterbacks coach, the position he held in Philadelphia during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, and new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, perhaps a passing game coordinator tag, according to an NFL source.

To make things even more interesting the Eagles were interested in tabbing Kingsbury to replace Johnson as their OC with two team sources believing the former Arizona head coach was the early preference before Kingsbury overplayed his hand a bit in a second interview.

At that point, the Eagles went to Kellen Moore, Dallas’ former OC from 2019-2022, who hired his long-time right-hand man with the Cowboys, Doug Nussmeier, to be Philadelphia's QB coach.

The Commanders, meanwhile, went with former Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn as their new head coach after things went south with flavor-of-the-week Ben Johnson. Quinn has already brought along Joe Whitt Jr., Dallas’ former secondary coach and defensive pass game coordinator, to be his DC and wanted to bring along well-regarded Cowboys defensive backs coach Al Harris.

Dallas, meanwhile, is still weighing who will replace Quinn, and among the names in consideration are former Commanders head coach Ron Rivera and ex-Giants DC Wink Martindale, although neither is believed to be the favorite.

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The Giants have largely stayed out of the game of musical chairs but that hasn’t always been the case when it comes to Eagles-envy. New York’s assistant GM Brandon Brown is Philadelphia’s former director of player personnel while OC/assistant head coach Mike Kafka and receivers coach Mike Groh have roots at the NovaCare Complex.

New York also interviewed former Eagles secondary coach Dennard Wilson to be its new DC before choosing former Tennessee DC Shane Bowen. Ironically Wilson is the new Titans DC, succeeding Bowen.

If familiarity really does breed contempt, the NFC East should be very interesting next season.