Caleb Wilfinger
Football is finally on the immediate horizon! Week 1 will kick off on September 5 with Thursday Night Football between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. Here at Pickswise, we are building up to the new season and you can check out our NFL futures guide, which has our Super Bowl winner picks, MVP best bets, player award predictions and much more.
For now, our handicapping team is breaking down every division with in-depth team analysis and best bets. Let’s dive into the NFC East, which will generate plenty of headlines all season long as the home of both the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Here are the NFL odds and our expert NFL picks for this fascinating division.
NFC East Odds
Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook and available at time of publishing.
- Philadelphia Eagles -130
- Washington Commanders +220
- Dallas Cowboys +550
- New York Giants +2000
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Philadelphia Eagles (-130)
After things went south for the Eagles to end the 2023 season, Nick Sirianni’s bunch was dominant throughout the 2024 campaign, finishing with the #2 seed in the NFC and rolling through all of their opponents in the postseason en route to a 2nd Super Bowl victory in the last 7 seasons. It was a bit of a redemption arc for Jalen Hurts and Sirianni, who were both under serious pressure heading into the season, and especially the playoffs. It was also a magical season for Saquon Barkley, as the former New York Giants running back had a career year, rushing for over 2,000 yards and finishing with 15 total touchdowns on the season.
Ordinarily, I’d look to fade a team coming off a championship, especially since the Eagles have a pretty difficult schedule ahead of them this season. In fact, it’s a particularly interesting 2nd half of the campaign, with Philadelphia facing off against the Packers, Lions, Bills, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys and Commanders (twice). However, I’m confident that Philadelphia will still do enough to get back to the playoffs, and in a division where I don’t have much confidence in the other teams, that’s enough for me to get to the window with a wager on the Eagles to repeat as division champs. It hasn’t happened in over 2 decades, but the NFC East repeat division champion curse will finally be lifted come January.
Philadelphia Eagles best bet: Eagles to win the NFC East (-130)
Washington Commanders (+220)
Heading into the 2024 campaign, I was pretty optimistic about Jayden Daniels and his ability to translate as a successful NFL quarterback. I had little doubt that the Washington offense would take a noticeable step forward with him at the controls, but even I was surprised with the end result of a 12-win season and an NFC Championship Game appearance. With that said, the Commanders are a prime regression candidate this season, and it starts on the offensive side of the ball. After all, Washington is not going to convert 87% of its 4th downs this season, and the Commanders were also 9-3 against playoff teams a season ago, which is sure to regress a bit this fall.
It’s also worth repeating that Washington beat just one playoff team in the regular season last year, and that was the Eagles when Philadelphia had to turn to backup quarterback Kenny Pickett following an injury to Hurts. This season, the Commanders will face off against a whopping 8 teams that made the playoffs in 2024. With that in mind, even though I can at least project a baseline level of competency for this Washington team, I’m certainly willing to take a small shot on the Under at plus-money odds.
Washington Commanders best bet: Commanders under 9.5 wins (+105)
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Dallas Cowboys (+550)
At this point, it’s fair to acknowledge that the Cowboys probably missed their Super Bowl window over the past couple of seasons, if they were even a true Super Bowl contender in the first place. However, I’m actually a bit higher than the public perception on the Cowboys, a year after I was extremely down on this team.
Yes, Jerry Jones runs this team very poorly and it’s often a circus in Dallas. However, the Cowboys’ offense has an extremely high floor as long as Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb are healthy. Furthermore, Dallas is stronger at the skill positions than it was last year, thanks to the insertion of George Pickens at wideout and the emergence of Jake Ferguson at tight end. The Cowboys’ defense is not one that I’m high on at all, but the schedule of opposing offenses gets a fair bit easier than it was last season, so there is cause for optimism there. Ultimately, while Dallas is more interested in being in the headlines than actually winning meaningful games, I still think this can be an 8 or 9 win team when next January rolls around. I lean to the Over with the Cowboys win total.
Dallas Cowboys best bet: Cowboys over 7.5 wins (-150)
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New York Giants (+2200)
Bringing up the rear in the NFC East is the New York Giants, a franchise that appeared to be heading in the right direction after a couple of brutal seasons at the bottom of the league. For starters, New York took a shot with a quarterback at the end of the first round of this year’s NFL Draft in Jaxson Dart, and reports out of training camp have been very positive regarding the rookie to this point. I have trust in Brian Daboll, but how he handles the QB situation between Dart and Russell Wilson will tell me a lot about where this team is at offensively.
The biggest issue for New York is the schedule, which I have ranked as the hardest slate in the league based on win totals. There’s hardly a break in this slate, and that’s a real concern for a team that is undergoing a complete reset on offense.
Fortunately, the Giants will likely boast the best defensive line in football, which at least gives this defense one elite component. The opposing slate of quarterbacks is daunting, but I can still see the Giants picking up a couple of wins in the division, especially since I have concerns about Prescott’s injury history and I see Washington taking a step back this season. With that in mind, I’ll eschew the full season win total and take a shot on the Giants to win at least 2 games within the division.
New York Giants best bet: Giants over 1.5 division wins (-160)
Grab our AFC East predictions, including a +290 best bet!
NFC East division predictions
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Washington Commanders
- Dallas Cowboys
- New York Giants
NFC East Best Bet: Philadelphia Eagles to win NFC East (-130)
Given my reservations on multiple teams in this division and my hesitation with what the Cowboys can truly achieve given their clear limitations on defense, the logical thing to do is target the Eagles to win the NFC East for the 2nd consecutive season with my best bet. Philadelphia has lost a few pieces from last season’s Super Bowl team, but the Eagles do still have one of the best rosters in the NFL and even with a difficult schedule, this is still a team that should be favored in nearly every game.
As long as Hurts, Barkley and the rest of the stars can stay healthy, this team should be able to reach at least 10 or 11 wins and take home the division crown. Look for this to be the year where a team finally breaks the NFC East curse.
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