Week 2 turned into a brutal pivot point in the NFC East when Jaxson Dart and Jayden Daniels both left with injuries that could end their seasons. At the very least, the New York Giants and Washington Commanders now face the possibility of losing their quarterbacks for substantial time, and the division race has already been jolted.
That is why the search for answers is landing now. The Philadelphia Eagles are 2-0, the Dallas Cowboys are 1-1, and the Giants and Commanders have already been pulled into a sharper fight than anyone expected in 2026. Philadelphia is still working out a new offense, but it has opened with wins while the rest of the NFC East is being forced to absorb injuries at the game’s most important position.
Dart’s knee injury came in last week's game and Daniels departed with an elbow injury, a pair of exits that could reshape both teams before the calendar moves any further. The Cowboys also lost to New York in Week 1, which already had the division leaning on early tiebreakers and a narrow margin for error. Now the Giants and Commanders may have to play for weeks, or longer, without the players around whom their seasons were built.
There is another detail that keeps the Eagles from looking fully settled despite the perfect record. They have been pushed to the very end in both weeks by the Commanders and Titans, and those opponents are a combined 0-4. So the clean 2-0 start looks sturdy on paper, but it has come against teams that have not yet won a game, which leaves the early table in the NFC East looking less secure than the record suggests.
The next checkpoint arrives in Week 3, when Philadelphia plays Chicago. That game will not solve the Giants’ or Commanders’ quarterback problem, but it will give the division another read on whether the Eagles are separating from the pack or simply surviving it while the injuries pile up behind them.
