Where the NFC East Ranks in CBS Sports' NFL Divisional Power Ranking

Where did the NFC East end up ranking on CBS Sports Jason LaCanfora’s way too early divisional power rankings? Probably not where you think.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
May 30, 2021 10:00 AM EDT

NFC “Least” no more?

That’s the opinion of Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports, who recently ranked the 2021 NFL divisions from first to last.

The four-team NFC East—Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, and the Giants—finished with a 23-40-1 combined record, clearly the worst of any division in the NFL last year, and it wasn’t even close.

The next worst division was the AFC South (Tennessee, Indianapolis, Houston, and Jacksonville) who, despite sending two teams (Titans and Colts) to the postseason, finished with a 27-37 record and saw two of the head coaches in that division (Houston and Jacksonville) replaced.

However, LaCanfora, in his raking, put the NFC East seventh out of eight divisions, just ahead of the AFC South. His reasoning?

It's called the NFC Least, far and wide, for good reason. Seven wins is all you needed to win it a year ago. It has no dominant team; no annual Super Bowl contender. All four teams are in various cycles of rebuilding or retooling, even if some of them won't admit it. I like WFT to win it again based on its defense, but Washington doesn't have enough to go far in January. The Cowboys may get that final wild card spot in a watered-down conference, but Dak is coming off a major injury and will need time to readjust, and that defense still stinks. The Eagles will be better than a year ago and could compete within the division, but I don't buy them as a true postseason factor. The Giants, to me, will be back in the QB market come 2022 and could be one of the six worst teams in football.

It certainly would have been interesting if LaCanfora had expanded on why he thinks the Eagles will be better than a year ago despite having a brand new coaching staff and a still relatively inexperienced quarterback, and why the Giants “could be one of the six worst teams in football.”

(Though in the Giants case, one might conclude that the gloom-and-doom forecast is due to the question marks about quarterback Daniel Jones.)

On another note, it was interesting that LaCanfora ranked the NFC West ahead of the AFC North for the top spot. If we’re basing rankings purely on how each division finished last year, the AFC North and its league-leading 28-25-1 record that, oh, by the way, produced three postseason participants, should at least get a chance to defend its title.

Instead, LaCanfora ranked the NFC West, which finished with a 36-36 record and was one of three divisions in the NFC to produce multiple playoff contenders.

But as was noted, this is a way too early power ranking that’s built on several questions that still need to be answered, which is why I wouldn’t advise getting too high or too low at this point until we see how all the teams within each division come together.

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