Biggest Strength and Weakness for each NFC East team in 2023

NFC East coaches and players are starting to get back into the flow of organized team practices, while their front offices are scouring the league for possible trades and free agents that can shore up some weaknesses, and add players to bolster their strengths. Or if the unfortunate event arises where a player they were counting on goes down with an injury. Each of these teams is looking to ensure they can do one thing at the start of the season: win the division to get into the playoffs and secure a home game but in order to do that they need to understand where their strengths and weaknesses currently are on their rosters.

OTAs and training camps provide them the opportunity to figure those things out, but as of right now, each NFC East team is still looking to see what they are. Lucky for us we can see those strengths and weaknesses starting to show already in practices and we are going to go through them right now. Mind you these could all change depending on what their front offices are able to do before the beginning of the season.

So let’s get started.

Biggest strength and weakness for every NFC East team in 2023

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys may have one of the best-built rosters in the division and whether you want to believe that it’s the quarterback Dak Prescott that’s held this team back or insufficient play calling by their former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore this team when clicking on all cylinders can hang with any team in this league. They are able to do that thanks to this particular strength.

Strength – Pass Rush

The Cowboys have a wealth of talent when it comes to players with the ability to rush the passer no matter where they play on the defense. The most notable is linebacker Micah Parsons but it doesn’t stop there, linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and rookie DeMarvion Overshown can get to the quarterback as well. They also have the veteran defensive ends DeMarcus Lawrence, Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, and Sam Williams who have proven they can cause problems as well. Then you have the secondary with safety Donovan Wilson and Jayron Kearse who can also be a problem. Combined this roster minus rookie Overshown accounted for 46 of the team’s 54 sacks on the season. Compare that to their opponents that were able to get just 50% of that against the Cowboys registering just 27 sacks. That’s a huge difference and a great strength to have in a league that has turned to passing the football more than running in years past.

But a pass rush can only get you so far, and the Cowboys have seen that firsthand, their defense has been able to keep them in games only to see their offense struggle at times and or give the football away. You may know where I’m going with this but it still has to be said, in order for this team to get further in the playoffs they are going to need to make changes on offense which leads me to their biggest weakness.

Weakness – Passing Game Concepts

Under Kellen Moore, the offense was one of, if not the best in the league at times, and yet they couldn’t get over the hump. Well, the reason isn’t that hard to figure out when your route tree concept relies on receivers coming back to your quarterback or turning and opening up in front of him. Those concepts made things easier for cornerbacks, safeties, and linebackers to key in on receivers and shrink the field, and forced Prescott to make more tight-window throws. Those tight window throws are really what lead to Prescott’s career high in interceptions last season with 15. To put this in perspective the Cowboys threw a total of 50 deep passes last season compared to 332 short and intermediate passes, the majority being hitch/curl routes, routes that were easier to cover.

Now the Cowboys have moved on from Moore and added receiver deep-threat receiver Brandin Cooks, but it remains to be seen how head coach Mike McCarthy and new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will work to change the concepts Moore installed during his time with the team. They’ve talked a good game up to this point, but they’ll need to prove it on the field to get this to become an afterthought.