Hogs Haven
In this week’s Reacts survey, we asked a pair of questions about the predicted winner of the NFC East and Commanders projected playoff success.
The results are slightly schizophrenic, with the Kool-Aid (or Flavor Aid, if you prefer) flowing strongly when it comes to predicting the division winner, but a lot less confidence about the Commanders’ postseason fortunes.
In an incredible display of belief in the home team, more than half of our survey respondents picked the burgundy & gold to hang the divisional championship banner ahead of the ‘27 season.
This indicates huge buy-in from Hogs Haven readers regarding the team’s reworked roster and two rookie NFL coordinators and new NFL play callers. Achieving this result will probably require a fast start since Washington is on the road against Philly and Dallas in Weeks 1 and 2, and complete the first half of the NFC East schedule with a home game against the Giants in Week 5.
While the Commanders close the season with a Week 18 home game against the Cowboys, they will complete the home & away series with New York and Philadelphia by Week 10 — that’s five division matchups in the first nine games of the season, which is far different from recent years when Washington has had a late bye week and closed out December and January with three or four division games.
It feels as if the NFC East is up for grabs in 2026, with the back-to-back reigning champion Eagles fighting a slow entropic decline as the effects of the team’s massively leveraged salary cap cut into roster flexibility, making it a little more rigid every year as productive players who’ve earned paydays leave in free agency to be replaced by lesser/cheaper veterans or unproven rookies. Philly still has a good roster, but they’ve been leaking starters for three offseasons now, and it feels like they’re approaching the tipping point.
The story lines for the other three teams in the division are almost eerily similar. All three teams struggled on defense in 2025 with the Giants, Commanders and Cowboys ranking 26th, 27th and 32nd, respectively, in points allowed last year.
Unsurprisingly, all three teams mentioned above dumped their defensive coordinators in an effort to turn around the dismal defensive performances. In fact, the Giants changed the head coach and turned over all three coordinator positions while Washington replaced coordinators on offense and defense.
Even the Eagles, who lost their opening playoff game in January, made a coordinator change, dumping offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo in favor of Sean Mannion. For those keeping count, that’s 1 new head coach, 3 new defensive coordinators, 3 new offensive coordinators, and 1 new special teams coordinator in the division this year. Don’t get me started on the new positional coaches and other staff changes.
