NFC East notebook: Dak is back, dysfunction in DC, and more

Let’s look around the NFC East and see what is happening with the New York Giants’ division rivals.

Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Philadelphia Eagles on a night when the quarterback controversy effectively ended. Cooper Rush struggled mightily against a stout Philadelphia defense, going 18 of 34 for 181 yards one touchdown, and three interceptions. While Rush did a good job at keeping the Cowboys’ season afloat, it seems obvious that to truly challenge for the division title, Dallas needs more.

Thankfully for the Cowboys, it looks like help is on the way. Dak Prescott looks like he will make his return this week against the Detroit Lions.

With Dak Prescott back in the fold, the Cowboys will hope to revitalize a passing offense that finished third in the NFL last season in passing yards. With a matchup this week against a struggling Lions secondary, it should be a perfect opportunity to get Prescott back into a rhythm.

It was an interesting week regarding the NFL owners.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reportedly got into a heated conversation with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft Tuesday at the NFL owner’s meeting that ultimately ended up in Jones telling Kraft “don’t f— with me”

The heated exchange was regarding the next contract of Roger Goodell. Jones addressed the exchange and the leaking of it during an interview with DFW sports radio station 105.3 The Fan.

“I’ve just gotten used to the fact that, when [I’m] saying something, it’s highly likely that it could be recorded,” Jones told 105.3’s Kevin Hageland. “I would say that, in this particular case, it’s probably accurate that I did express myself in a way that’s probably not in good taste.”

Since this argument was over Roger Goodell, Jones made sure that he also cleared the air on his stance with the commissioner.

“Let me be real clear, I’m a real supporter of Goodell as the commissioner,” Jones said. “I think he’s … outstanding, and he’s been commissioner with a structure, with a governance that’s very unique. It is not like a normal business structure. It’s more like a family structure. … What you heard was an issue with the structure regarding how we were going to address the commissioner or his successor.”

It has been an interesting thing to publicly see the infighting within the ownership group over this past week.

Philadelphia Eagles

After what seemingly seemed like a lock week in and week out the streak is finally broken. Week 6 was the first week that a member of the Philadelphia Eagles did not take home a player of the week honor. According to Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation, a member of the Eagles was snubbed from the honor.

“The Eagles had what seemed like an obvious winner for NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 6. After logging two picks against the Dallas Cowboys, C.J. Gardner-Johnson felt like a shoo in.

Alas, the award instead went to Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen. The rookie logged one interception in their win over the Arizona Cardinals.

By all accounts, Woolen did play well. He allowed just a 33.9 passer rating when targeted.

But it seems a little weird to me to be ignoring CJGJ’s big performance in a nationally-televised game with such high stakes. Cardinals-Seahawks did not nearly have the same level juice.

Not to mention the second of CJGJ’s two interceptions happened after he had to leave the game for a bit due to suffering what looked like a very painful hand injury.”

While the end of the run is disappointing for Eagles fans and players, a 6-0 start and beating a heated rival in front of a national audience is still a great prize.

With the Eagles on bye this week it’s a good time for self-reflection. Quarterback Jalen Hurts reflected on his career thus far with The Athletic.

“It’s an ongoing journey,” Hurts said. “If you think one day you arrived, you won’t. There is no arrival. There’s only the journey.”

With the Eagles the lone remaining unbeaten team at times making the wins look easy, Hurts knows how hard it is to win in this league.

“It’s very hard to win in this league, and that’s the balance I have to obtain — in knowing how hard it is, but also being eager and hungry to want more,” Hurts said. “When you have self-disappointment, that’s a breed to self-improvement.”

“I’m not trying to chase perfection,” Hurts said. “I’m just trying to chase progress.”

The Eagles will use this extra week to prepare for a battle with the in-state rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Even with the Steelers currently standing at 2-4, Hurts and the Eagles won’t take their opponent lightly.

Washington Commanders

With the continued turmoil on and off the field for the Washington Commanders, it was bound to have ripple effects. It looks like we are starting to see some of those effects in the Commanders’ legacy events. To celebrate the team’s 90th anniversary, the organization came up with a 90 greatest players list with 10 spots being fan-voted. One of the players selected to this list via fan vote was tight end Chris Cooley. While Cooley is honored to be recognized by the fan base, the former Commander voiced his opinion on attending the event.

“I don’t have any interest in doing this,” Cooley said. “I’m very appreciative of being voted in and I’m very appreciative of my time when I was there with (Washington). At this point, I don’t have a lot of desire to be involved with the Washington Commanders.”

Cooley further elaborated and sympathized with the Commander faithful.

“I feel for all of the fans for where they are at, and I still appreciate the people that are still fans, that are still diehards,” Cooley said. “Because you know very well, as much as me, even at times maybe you even find yourself cheering against (the Commanders). It’s still the only game you are rooting. I’m not going to watch a Bills or Broncos game and say I’m a Broncos fan, I hope. There’s no other team, so my only interest is still Washington.”

With the organization continuously being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, including some serious allegations against Dan Snyder, it’s no surprise that some former players would rather stay away from associating with the franchise for now.

Things with Dan Snyder continue to get even more toxic, and it looks like it has gotten to a boiling point. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay looks like he has finally spoken out loud what most owners have possibly discussed privately, that it’s time to remove Dan Snyder from league ownership

“I just believe in the workplace today, the standard that the shield stands for, in the NFL, that you have to stand for that and protect that,” Irsay said,

“I just think that once owners talk amongst each other, they’ll arrive to the right decision,” he added. “My belief is that, unfortunately, I believe that that’s the road we probably need to go down, and we just need to finish the investigation. But it’s gravely concerning to me, the things that have occurred there over the last 20 years.”

This prompted a quick statement from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell:

“There’s no reason for there to be any speculation at this point in time or discussion until we have the facts. That was my message to ownership,” Goodell said, according to The Associated Press. “Speculation without facts is not a very positive thing to do. I think everyone deserves to have the facts and to make sure those decisions are made with facts, and the membership will have that opportunity.”

A Commanders spokesperson released a statement in regards to Irsay’s comments as well.

“It is highly inappropriate, but not surprising, that Mr. Irsay opted to make statements publicly based on falsehoods in the media,” the spokesperson said, according to The Washington Post. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Irsay decided to go public with his statement today, while an investigation is in process, and the team has had no opportunity to formally respond to allegations.”

It seems weekly that this Dan Snyder situation hits a new low.