The only team currently left standing out of the NFC East division is the Philadelphia Eagles after knocking out the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys falling to the 49ers this past weekend. No matter how the season ends for the Eagles, they and the rest of the teams in the division are going to have quite a few tough decisions to make this off-season and ahead of 2023 NFL free agency. Each of them has players on these 2022 rosters that are going to hit the market and we know that they aren’t going to be able to play everyone leading to a possible exodus of talent from the division or at least from each team.
Three out of the four teams in the division (Eagles, Giants, Commanders) have questions looming about the quarterback position coming up this season and next season which will restrict their abilities to spend money to keep everyone they want. The Cowboys don’t have that issue but do have holes on both sides of the football that they will need to fill if they want to continue to be competitive in what looks to have become to toughest division in football once again. Let’s take a look at each of these teams, their players, and salary cap projections in order to see what they might be able to do this off-season from a team-building perspective.
First up, America’s Team.
2023 NFL Free Agency: Mass exodus from the NFC East?
Dallas Cowboys 2023 Free Agents
2023 Projected Salary Cap Space: $6,732,313
Big Name Free Agents: RB Tony Pollard, LB Leighton Vander Esch, TE Dalton Schultz, CB Anthony Brown, OT Terence Steele, S Donovan Wilson
Who Possibly Stays: Tony Pollard, Terence Steele, Leighton Vander Esch, Anthony Brown
Who Possibly Goes: Donovan Wilson, Dalton Schultz
The Dallas Cowboys haven’t been a team that’s been willing to open their checkbook in order to bring in or retain talent if they don’t play a position they see as essential. Owner Jerry Jones and his defacto general manager son Stephen Jones made that very clear last year by dealing receiver Amari Cooper and letting defensive end Randy Gregory walk in free agency after talks broke down. It’s tough to see them changing things up and opening their checkbooks this off-season, but, maybe this second loss and the play of quarterback Dak Prescott will light a fire under this front office to make moves.
The first order of business for them though will need to be decisions on who they are going to let walk in free agency and who they are going to sign. The four big names that stand out as players they are going to try hard to keep will be Pollard, Steele, Vander Esch, and Brown due to the fact that when they left the field there was a clear drop in production on both the offensive and defensive sides of the football. Pollard brought explosiveness to this offense while Steele brought the mean streak and physicality, on defense Vander Esch was a force in the running game while Brown was a nice complement to the secondary across from Trevon Diggs.
The Cowboys would love to keep all of them but Wilson while a very good player but could get more money from another team as the Cowboys have never really valued the safety position. As for Schultz, the Cowboys saw 2022 draft pick Jake Ferguson, and undrafted rookie Peyton Hendershot both make big plays at tight end this season making Schultz more expendable.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see this front office make a free agency splash as well to help quarterback Dak Prescott in the passing game.
New York Giants 2023 Free Agents
2023 Projected Salary Cap Space: $58,069,685
Big Name Free Agents: QB Daniel Jones, RB Saquon Barkley, WR Sterling Shepard, OLB Oshane Ximines, WR Richie James, S Julian Love, WR Darius Slayton
Who Possibly Stays: Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Julian Love, Sterling Shepard
Who Possibly Goes: Darius Slayton, Oshane Ximines, Richie James
The Giants in their second year under head coach Brian Daboll have turned themselves into a team on the rise in the NFL thanks to great coaching that elevated the players around them. But while that’s a good thing for the team’s future, it becomes an issue once free agency comes around and while the Giants have the most projected salary cap space of all the NFC East teams they face the toughest balancing act. They are currently in a situation where they have to decide whether to pay or franchise tag their star running back who has had injury problems or pay or franchise tag a quarterback who has come on this season but has issues with turnovers.
If they chose to tag Jones the price tag would be over $30 million dollars whereas for Barkley the price falls to a more manageable sum of a little over $10 million. Should be an easy decision right, actually, it’s not, and depending on how much of a hard stance the player and his agent take it could lead to the team not being able to go deals done in time to keep more of their important players. Most teams have to deal with this situation but the Giants haven’t for some time now and it will be interesting to see how they approach it.
.@EmmanuelAcho: Daniel Jones is officially teetering with that threatening concept of being elite. pic.twitter.com/TOAJn8GYcE
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) January 16, 2023
I believe though that they will franchise-tag Barkley and work out a deal with Jones using his issues holding onto the football and one year of quality play on the field to their advantage to get more of a team-friendly deal. As for the rest of the players on this list, Shepard, and Love will remain with the team, unfortunately, they won’t be able to keep the rest of this group thanks to teams coming in and offering more money and or playing time.
Philadelphia Eagles 2023 Free Agents
2023 Projected Salary Cap Space: $11,598,399
Big Name Free Agents: RB Miles Sanders, RB Boston Scott, DT Fletcher Cox, DE Robert Quinn, DT Javon Hargrave, C Jason Kelce, CB James Bradberry, S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, DE Brandon Graham
Who Possibly Stays: Miles Sanders, Javon Hargrave, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson
Who Possibly Goes: Boston Scott, Fletcher Cox, Robert Quinn, James Bradberry, Brandon Graham, Jason Kelce
From the outset of this 2022 season, the Eagles have been swinging for the fences in order to make a run at winning their second Super Bowl. Making huge trades for receiver A.J. Brown and defensive end Robert Quinn to signing two monster defensive tackles late in the season and it’s worked out for them as they’ve now reached the NFC Championship game. On the horizon, though this front office will see a team that has a multitude of holes to fill and not a lot of salary cap space to do it with so they will rely on draft picks and whoever they are able to afford, which won’t be many out of this group.
Respect but His organization is the Problem more than anything Fam! I really try to be honest with y’all man and when I am y’all get mad at me but such is life! Howie Roseman gm in Philly made moves to get to a champ game we didn’t 🙏🏾. Still a Good season for us but not enough https://t.co/v32kFGg7tj
— Marcus Spears (@mspears96) January 23, 2023
As I see it right now the Eagles should be able to retain Sanders, Hargrave, and maybe Gardner-Johnson this off-season if they are lucky. Now quite a few of the names on this list have flirted with retirement and may just go that route this off-season but that still leaves this team with holes to fill and not a lot of money to do it with. Not to mention they have the decision to make with quarterback Jalen Hurts coming next season and if they are going to pay him they are going to need to save money to do it.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Eagles navigate this off-season and 2023 NFL free agency after the wheeling and dealing they’ve done in 2022. General manager Howie Roseman is going to have his work cut out for him.
Washington Commanders 2023 Free Agents
2023 Projected Salary Cap Space: $20,322,360
Big Name Free Agents: DT Da’Ron Payne, QB Taylor Heinicke, LB Cole Holcomb, LB Jon Bostic
Who Possibly Stays: Taylor Heinicke, Cole Holcomb
Who Possibly Goes: Jon Bostic, Da’Ron Payne
It seems like the Commanders always have an abundance of cap space to play with in 2023 NFL free agency but the moves they make just never pan out. This season they will once again have the money but will they spend it on Heinicke, the quarterback that almost got them into the playoffs again this season, or ride with Carson Wentz under center? My money is on them keeping Heinicke and bringing back linebacker Holcomb as well to keep a valuable piece on both the offensive and defensive sides of the football.
In addition to QB Carson Wentz, #Commanders TE Logan Thomas could also be released this offseason, per the Washington Times.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 21, 2023
Thomas is coming off a down season of 39 catches for 323 yards. But he was coming off a torn ACL injury from 2021.
In 2020, Thomas had 72/670/6 line. pic.twitter.com/bu0ocTv16N
I don’t see them keeping Botsic after this season and Payne is going to find greener pastures thanks to the money that’s about the be thrown his way in free agency. Outside of that I once again see this team going the route of building a team with cheap free-agent signings and through the draft.
From there who knows what this organization could do with the dysfunction going on at the top and the potential sale of the team still an option? Until all of that can be sorted out there’s no telling what the off-season for this team will look like.