The National Football Conference – Eastern Division or NFC East is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Washington Commanders.
The division was formed in 1967 as the National Football League Capitol Division and acquired its current name in 1970 when the NFL merged with the American Football League. The NFC East is currently the only division in the league in which all four current teams have won at least one Super Bowl.[1] With 13 Super Bowl titles, the NFC East is currently the most successful division in the NFL during the Super Bowl era, with the AFC West second with ten titles. The NFC East currently has the longest streak without a consecutive division champion, with no team having repeated since the Philadelphia Eagles won four consecutive titles from 2001 to 2004.[2][3][4][5][6]
The division's original name, NFL Capitol Division, derived from being centered on the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., and the country's birthplace, Philadelphia. In 1967 and 1969, the teams in the division were Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington and the expansion team New Orleans Saints, with the New York Giants swapping divisions with the Saints for the 1968 season. This arrangement had been agreed in advance as a means to ensure all of the NFL's teams would be able to visit New York once in those three years. With the merger in 1970, following contentious negotiations culminating in a random draw, it was agreed that New York (along with the St. Louis Cardinals) would permanently return to the re-branded NFC East.
The NFC East has a long history of being geographically inaccurate. While the New York Giants, Philadelphia, and Washington are based on the East Coast, Dallas and St. Louis (later Phoenix, then Arizona) remained part of the East from the 1970 merger until 2002 despite being geographically west of most teams in the conference and closer to the Pacific Ocean.
To begin with, the Cowboys were located east of only two NFC teams that were outside of the East division (Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers from the West division), while the Cardinals were east of one additional such team (Minnesota Vikings from the Central division). The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, east of Dallas and St. Louis, joined the Central as an expansion team in 1976. The Cardinals relocated to Phoenix to start the 1988 season and stayed in the East through 2001; that made them located west of every team in the NFC except for the Rams and 49ers. The Rams relocated from Los Angeles to St. Louis to start the 1995 season and stayed in the West, while the Carolina Panthers joined the West as an expansion team that same season; this made the Cardinals and Cowboys west of every team in the conference, except for the 49ers, from 1995 to 2001.
While the divisions in general have been much more geographically accurate since 2002, even following the Rams' return to Los Angeles, the Cowboys are further west than every team in the league except for seven of the eight West teams in both conferences, in addition to the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFC West.
The NFC East teams have combined to be the most successful division in the Super Bowl era with 21 NFC championships and 13 Super Bowl victories, the highest marks of any division in the NFL. The division features a number of prominent rivalries such as the Cowboys–Eagles rivalry, Cowboys–Washington rivalry and Eagles–Giants rivalry, among others. Because the division's teams are in some of the United States' largest media markets (New York No. 1, Philadelphia No. 4, Dallas-Fort Worth No. 5, and Washington No. 9), the NFC East receives a high amount of coverage from national sports media outlets.[7] In the early 1990s the division claimed four consecutive Super Bowl champions, all against the Buffalo Bills, with the Giants and Washington respectively winning back-to-back in Super Bowls XXV and XXVI; and the Cowboys winning twice after in Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII. Those same three teams won seven out of ten Super Bowls, from 1986–87 to 1995–96 (the 49ers won the other three during that span). Meanwhile, the Eagles are the most recent team in the division to win a Super Bowl, beating the Patriots 41–33 in Super Bowl LII.
The NFC East was the first division since the 2002 realignment to send 3 teams to the playoffs when the 2006-07 NFL playoffs had Philadelphia winning the division and Dallas and New York taking both Wild Card spots. On the other hand, the NFC East became one of three divisions to be won by a team with a losing record (the previous two being the NFC South and NFC West) when the then-Washington Football Team won the 2020 division crown with a 7–9 record.
The Philadelphia Eagles are the only NFC East team to actually play in the city of the team's naming.[8] The other three teams play in suburbs of the major cities they are named after. The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas, and are the only team in this division not based in the Eastern Time Zone (the Cowboys are based in the Central Time Zone).[9] The Washington Commanders play in Landover, Maryland,[10] and the New York Giants play in East Rutherford, New Jersey,[11] where they share a stadium with the New York Jets. Analogously, three of the four AFC East teams do not actually play within the city of their naming. (The Patriots geographical identifier is New England, being named for the region the team plays in.)
As of 2023, all four teams in the division were in the top ten of most valuable NFL franchises (Cowboys #1; Giants #2; Commanders #7; Eagles #9).[12]
Place cursor over year for division champion.
There was one division sweep of the Capitol Division: the 1969 Cowboys went 6–0 in division matchups.[13]
No team has repeated as division champion since 2004, the longest such streak in NFL history.
All four teams in the NFC East have won the Super Bowl. The Cowboys lead with five, followed by the Giants with four, Washington with three, and the Eagles with one. In overall NFL history, however, the Giants lead with eight league championships, followed by the Cowboys and Washington with five each, then the Eagles with four.
There have been three division sweeps of the NFC East Division, the 1998 Dallas Cowboys (8–0), the 2004 Philadelphia Eagles (6–0), and the 2021 Dallas Cowboys (6–0).[13]
To sort table above, click button to right of heading.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)