I don't know about winning the division. I think the East is going to be a lot tougher this year. I think Washington will be good again with Daniels healthy, NY will have to be better with a decent coach, and Philly even if down won't be easy.
And even if Parker is as good as we hope, I'm sure a 34 year old rookie DC is going to have some growing pains.
If we just show great improvement and can line up and play solid defense this year, I'll be happy. If things fall into place, next year might be when we can do something.
No, if we're generally healthy and Pickens isn't a huge distraction it'll be a disappointment not to win the division, or to at least win 10-11 games. If you get a team randomly going on a heater and popping off for 13-4 that's fine, but if we don't have any big issues and aren't at least 10-7 or 11-6 it's a huge disappointment.
Every other team in the division has much bigger question marks than whether or not Parker can acclimate to being DC.
The Eagles are damn near in turmoil, Barkley looks cooked (over 800 combined touches the last two seasons), they're about to trade their best WR, their elite OL coach left, and Fangio may have one foot out the door. I'm sure their defense will still be very good but their offense is in big trouble unless Mannion is basically a McVay at OC or Barkley somehow can turn back the clock after massive usage the last two years and is the best RB in the league again.
The Giants best WR isn't going to be ready to start the year, who knows when he'll be 100%, their QB and lead RB are concussions waiting to happen (and aren't that good to begin with until proven otherwise), their OL might be average, and their defense is basically ass outside of their edge rushers. They might turtleball their way to 9 wins under Harbaugh but their roster isn't good unless Dart takes a massive (and unlikely) leap.
The Skins have one legit WR (who is 31), one of the worst RB groups in the league, a new OC who has only been coaching for two years, and a QB who needs to run 8 times a game to be able to play at a high level, but who obviously isn't built physically to do so. Their defense was just as bad as ours last year and while it should be improved, I can't see it being any better than average.
Could any one of these teams have a crazy run of luck like Washington in 2024? Or could one of them have some sort of unlikely fortune in terms of a Barkley resurrection or Dart magically morphing into Mahomes?
Sure, but I think all of that is much less likely than Parker figuring things out as a first-time DC, especially when you consider that both the Eagles and Skins have first-time OC's who have much less skins on the wall than Parker.
