In case you didn’t notice while watching Monday Night Football, the NFC East stinks.
In fact, the cumulative record of the NFC East this season puts the division within striking distance of tying the record for the worst division in NFL history. With three weeks remaining this season, here’s how the NFC East standings look:
Dallas 6-7
Philadelphia 6-7
Washington 3-10
NY Giants 2-11
That’s a cumulative record of 17-35, which is actually a worse winning percentage than the worst in NFL history, the 2008 NFC West, which finished the season 22-42.
The good news for the bad teams in the NFC East is, most of their remaining games are against other bad teams in their own division. On Sunday the Giants play the Dolphins and the Cowboys play the Rams, but other than those two games, every remaining game involving an NFC East team is against another NFC East team -- which means someone in the division has to win.
If the Giants and Cowboys both lose on Sunday, that would give the division a 17-37 record. Then there would be five remaining games, all involving NFC East teams vs. NFC East teams, to add a 5-5 record to the division and make them finish the season at 22-42, tying that 2008 NFC West.
The good news for either the Cowboys or Eagles is that the 2008 NFC West actually saw its champion, the 9-7 Cardinals, win three playoff games and go to the Super Bowl. That fate probably doesn’t await the winner of this year’s NFC East.