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ESPN NFL power rankings have the Cowboys way overrated

You never would have guessed it.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

It's kind of a boring, slow time in the NFL right now. Free agency activity is mostly over and the NFL Draft is only a little under a month away. But have no fear because thankfully ESPN is here to spice things up with some extremely meaningful post-free agency NFL Power Rankings. They have the Eagles at No. 20 overall.

20) Sam Bradford is back at quarterback and Chase Daniel is now the backup. There's a good chance Daniel will play, too: Bradford has missed 33 games in his six-year career, including two last season.

That ranking seems about right. The Eagles finished 7-9 last season so they're hovering below the league average ranking of No. 16. For as disappointing as Philadelphia's 2015 season was, the Birds still finished with a better record than 11 other teams.

One of those 11 teams with a worse record than the Eagles was their division rival: the Dallas Cowboys. Yet somehow ESPN has them ranked all the way at No. 13, which is the best mark in the NFC East.

13) The signing of Alfred Morris could add some consistency and insurance to the Cowboys' running game. Darren McFadden rushed for 1,000 yards last season, but has never had consecutive seasons with 200-plus rushes.

I mean, power rankings are meaningless, so who cares, but ... really? The Cowboys are the team to beat in the NFC East, ESPN?

Dallas was so bad last year. They went 4-12. They had the fourth worst point differential. They finished as the sixth worst team ranked by DVOA. Being without Tony Romo for most of the season was a big blow, obviously, but they didn't even play that great when he was in. Dallas barely edged out a bad Giants team in Week 1 because Eli Manning made a bone-headed decision to stop the clock late in the game. The NFL even admitted refs blew two calls in that game that would have helped the G-Men win. The Cowboys looked bad in their win over the Eagles in Week 2. Both teams were just dreadful that day. Then Dallas beat a bad Miami team by a total of 10 points when Romo returned later in the season. Whoop dee do.

And it's not like Romo's injuries can just be assumed away moving forward. Romo turns 36 in April and his long-term durability could be a legitimate concern for Dallas.

The Cowboys might bounce back in 2016. They'll probably be better than their 4-12 mark this season. But I don't really see the need to crown them just yet.

The truth is that there's no team to beat in the NFC East right now. They were all very bad last season. Washington might be viewed as favorites by default since they won the division in 2015, but they didn't even beat one team with a winning record all season. Then they got stomped at home by the Packers in the first round of the playoffs.

On paper, at least, the division is very much up for grabs. The Eagles will be in the mix if only because the NFC East looks weak again.

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