With June almost here, we're a little more than three months away from the start of football, which means it's time to fire up the arguments about which teams will dominate the 2020 regular season.
ESPN unveiled its 2020 Football Power Index rankings on Tuesday, an analytics-based look at all 32 teams, and no one should be surprised by the No. 1 team, defending champion Kansas City. Good for Andy Reid.
But outside the top two teams - the Chiefs and the No. 2 Ravens - it's clear ESPN's rankings believe the NFC is the stronger conference, with six of the top eight teams hailing from the NFC.
Including, you guessed it, the Eagles.
The Eagles rank No. 6 in the league, according to ESPN, one year after they won the NFC East despite a rash of injuries and setbacks. It feels fair: the Birds didn't even reach the Divisional Round of the playoffs, but this year they'll (hopefully) be healthy and ready to make some noise.
The problem for Eagles fans, however, comes when you look one spot above the Eagles to No. 5 and find... the Cowboys.
Rough.
NFL
ESPN's projections basically have the Eagles and Cowboys in a dead heat - which is fair - but they give Dallas the slight advantage instead of the Birds, an interesting decision considering the ways both teams finished their respective seasons last year.
Here's a look at a few of ESPN's more interesting projected stats:
5. Dallas Cowboys
Projected wins: 9.3
Chance to reach playoffs: 69%
Chance to win NFC East: 48%
Chance to win Super Bowl: 4.8%
6. Philadelphia Eagles
Projected wins: 9.1
Chance to reach playoffs: 66%
Chance to win NFC East: 44.7%
Chance to win Super Bowl: 4.3%
ESPN's Seth Walden explained Tuesday that the relative consistency in Dallas's offensive personnel, plus the addition of Mike McCarthy as the team's new head coach, gives the Cowboys the advantage.
It's certainly an explanation.
One might imagine that, given the teams' fairly even offseasons, these projections would take recent history into account and give the Eagles the slight upper hand. Alas, it's the other way around.
I know I'll gladly take the coach with a more recent Super Bowl win, and the team with the more recent division championship, until proven otherwise.
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