The site profootballreference.com produces a metric called AV – approximate value. This is their attempt to put a single number on each player-season since 1960 so that they can (very approximately) compare across years and across positions.
I filtered on NFC East players currently on the team roster for seasons with an AV of seven or better. The results show the number of players, their total seasons of AV of seven or better, the number of players in 2019 that met the criteria and the average AV for those players in 2019.
| Team | # Players | Total Seasons | 2019 # Players | 2019 Avg AV |
| DAL | 14 | 44 | 11 | 10.45 |
| PHI | 17 | 55 | 12 | 8.75 |
| NYG | 10 | 15 | 9 | 7.78 |
| WAS | 8 | 22 | 4 | 7 |
Sorted by average AV for the qualifying players has Dallas as the front-runner team to beat in the NFC East. Here is the list of players on the Cowboys that met the criteria and their seasons. Pro-Bowl (PB) and All-Pro First Team (AP1) player seasons are designated by number of seasons in those columns. The AV column contains the sum of their AV for the years of 7 or better.
| Player | Pos | Last Year | Age | Draft | PB | AP1 | AV | Yrs > 7 |
| Dak Prescott | QB | 2019 | 26 | 4-135 | 2 | 0 | 60 | 4 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | RB | 2019 | 24 | 1-4 | 3 | 1 | 52 | 4 |
| Amari Cooper | WR | 2019 | 25 | 1-4 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 |
| Michael Gallup | WR | 2019 | 23 | 3-81 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Tyron Smith | LT | 2019 | 29 | 1-9 | 7 | 2 | 102 | 9 |
| Zack Martin | RG | 2019 | 29 | 1-16 | 6 | 4 | 72 | 6 |
| La’el Collins | RT | 2019 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 3 | |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | DE | 2019 | 27 | 2-34 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 4 |
| Antwaun Woods | NT | 2018 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | |
| Tyrone Crawford | DE | 2018 | 29 | 3-81 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 4 |
| Jaylon Smith | LB | 2019 | 24 | 2-34 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 2 |
| Sean Lee | LB | 2019 | 33 | 2-55 | 2 | 1 | 40 | 4 |
| Leighton Vander Esch | LB | 2018 | 22 | 1-19 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1 |
| Chidobe Awuzie | CB | 2019 | 24 | 2-60 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
The Cowboys had an 8-8 record in 2019. They were one of only two teams that had a positive season points differential but not a winning record. Over the last five seasons there were only eleven teams that met that criteria. The 2019 Dallas team had the highest point differential of those teams by +57 points.
Here are the Giants with an AV of seven of better.
| Player | Pos | Last Year | Age | Draft | PB | AP1 | AV | Yrs > 7 |
| Daniel Jones | QB | 2019 | 22 | 1-6 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Saquon Barkley | RB | 2019 | 22 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 2 |
| Sterling Shepard | WR | 2018 | 25 | 2-40 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Nate Solder | LT | 2019 | 31 | 1-17 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 2 |
| Will Hernandez | LG | 2019 | 24 | 2-34 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 |
| Jon Halapio | OC | 2019 | 28 | 6-179 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Kevin Zeitler | RG | 2019 | 29 | 1-27 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Dalvin Tomlinson | NT | 2019 | 25 | 2-55 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 3 |
| Dexter Lawrence | DE | 2019 | 22 | 1-17 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Markus Golden | LB | 2019 | 28 | 2-58 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
The Cowboys have an advantage in number of players with AV of seven or better and also their average AV for those players in 2019. The Cowboys average AV for these players in 2019 was 10.5 compared to the Giants average of 7.8. The Giants are listed as underdogs for both Dallas match-ups.You have to go back to the 2016 season for a Giant victory over Dallas. That season the Giants took both games.
But there is always hope for the Giants to steal victory. Last season there were 91 of he 256 regular season games in which the underdog won for a 35% win rate. The Cowboys were tie with the Chargers as losing the most games in which they were favored to win with seven losses.
In this stay at home world of the pandemic I will leave you with my list of my all-time favorite Cowboys.
John Wayne in Red River (1948)
Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952)
James Stewart in Bend of The River (1952) or Destry Rides Again (1939)
Kirk Douglas in Lonely Are The Brave (1962)
John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart in Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
There are 50 days to the unofficial start of the NFL season with the Hall of Fame Game on Aug 6th with the Cowboys and Steelers. This week the governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, said about the game – “Having a crowd that size, I think is highly unlikely,”. Hall of Fame communications vice president Rich Desrosiers said “The governor did not speak specifically to holding the game or related events with reduced crowds or at venues set up to maximize safe physical distancing — contingencies the Hall has been working on since mid-March.”. Hopefully they will hold the game even if without fans in attendance.
