Eagles' offseason is going much better than rest of NFC East

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On the latest Eagle Eye podcast, we spent some time grading all the moves the Eagles have made so far in free agency. 

You can argue the merit of some of their moves (and we did, check it out), but overall, the Eagles have done a pretty good job this offseason. I had them with a GPA of 3.09. That’s a good offseason. 

If I were grading on a curve, they’d look even better — because the rest of the teams in NFC East have had much more questionable free agency periods. 

This is where I remind you that a team hasn’t won the NFC East in back-to-back seasons since 2003-04. If that continues, it means the Cowboys won’t win the division in 2019. And based on their teams right now, we know the Giants or Redskins sure as hell aren’t winning it. This division seems like the Eagles' to lose. 

Let’s take a closer look at the rest of the NFC East teams and how they’ve fared in free agency:

Giants 

• Traded Odell Beckham Jr. 

• Let Landon Collins walk 

• Traded Olivier Vernon 

• Signed Golden Tate 

• Signed Markus Golden

• Kept Eli Manning 

Overview: All these moves aren’t terrible in a vacuum. I think getting rid of a generational talent like OBJ and getting back what they did was awful. They were fleeced by the Browns. And refusing to franchise-tag Collins didn’t make much sense to me either. He’s a young and talented safety, one of their best defensive players. 

But trading Olivier Vernon for Kevin Zeitler wasn’t a bad move at all and then replacing Vernon’s production with a cheaper Golden made plenty of sense. 

The problem with the Giants’ entire offeason is just the utter lack of direction. They’re rebuilding and trying to contend. They let their best offensive and defensive players walk but still signed Tate to an expensive contract. And above all, they are still married to Eli Manning. Unless they draft a franchise quarterback in April, this entire offseason is NFL malpractice. Dave Gettleman might not know what the hell he’s doing. 

Redskins

• Signed Landon Collins 

• Signed DRC 

• Traded for Case Keenum 

• Re-signed Adrian Peterson 

• Let Preston Smith/Jamison Crowder walk 

• Signed Ereck Flowers

Overview: Collins got a mega-deal, the kind the Giants were never going to pay him. The 'Skins got a great player, but they clearly had to overpay to do it. He’s getting $14M a year. The Keenum deal isn’t awful given their circumstances, but Keenum vs. Colt McCoy in training camp kind of tells you about the ceiling the Redskins have in 2019. 

They actually signed Flowers, the failed Giants draft pick, and plan to play him at guard. The Eagles have to be thrilled about that decision. 

The worst part of the 'Skins' offseason is that we’re apparently finding out about all these moves at the same time as head coach Jay Gruden. According to a report from 106.7, Gruden learned about the Collins signing only when a media member texted him. That’s not great. 

Cowboys 

• Brought back Jason Witten

• Missed out on Earl Thomas 

• Franchise-tagged DeMarcus Lawrence 

• Let Cole Beasley walk 

• Signed DT Christian Covington, DE Kerry Hyder

• Re-signed FB Jamize Olawale 

Overview: When one of your top moves is bringing a 36-year-old tight end back from the broadcast booth, things might not be going well. (But everyone is in their debt for saving us from Witten on MNF.) The Cowboys have been extremely quiet since free agency opened, so this is more of an incomplete grade. They re-signed their fullback, so there’s that. Slapping a franchise tag on Lawrence was necessary but it doesn’t look like that’s going well; messy situation. 

The deals for Covington and Hyder make sense because they’re cheap, but those moves aren’t a huge reason to get excited. 

A lot of people thought the Cowboys were going to get Earl Thomas and they didn’t. He would have really helped that defense. They are reportedly showing interest in Eric Berry, which could be a big move if he can get back to his former level of play. 

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