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Class of the NFC East

Who is The Class of the NFL NFC East?

Great question, we’re going to tell you.

We took a look at metrics across thirteen different categories like Playoff Appearance Percentage, Playoff Series Wins Over the Past 10 Years, All-Time Team Points Leaders, and more. We weighted certain metrics, came up with a point system and have come to a definitive consensus. Let’s dive in!

The first, and perhaps most obvious metric to look at is NFC East Division Titles:

NFC East Division Titles

The NFC East was founded in 1970 and originally included five teams. The Phoenix (formerly St. Louis and currently Arizona) Cardinals were members of the division up until 2001. The Cardinals won 2 titles consecutively in 1974-1975.

The Dallas Cowboys have historically dominated the division winning the NFC East title over 40% of the time, but Philly has come on really strong beginning at the turn of the century, winning the division 10 times out of a possible 23 — that’s over 43% of the time.

Playoff Appearance Percentage

This is one of the most important metrics in our opinion — a good team needs to earn a spot in the postseason on a consistent basis. The class of the division in this category is the Dallas Cowboys who are tied with Green Bay for the most playoff appearances all time despite having only been in the league since 1960.

Playoff Appearances Last 10 Years

In creating the criteria, we placed extra weight on recent performance specifically; so in this metric we look at each teams playoff performance over the past decade (2014-2023) — number of playoff appearances and playoff series wins:

The class of the division over the past decade has been the Philadelphia Eagles — a trend that will likely continue over the next few years. Philly is the only NFC East team to make a Super Bowl appearance over the past 10 years, winning it in 2018 and losing by just 3 points in 2023. Dallas has matched Philly in appearances — both making the postseason 50% of the time, but they’ve not shared the same success once getting there.

Championship Percentage

It wouldn’t be fair to include Super Bowl Championships as a metric — obviously — because the teams have all been around for different lengths of time. Also, the Super Bowl has only been a thing since 1967 — prior to that, teams had competed for the NFL Championship since 1933. The percentages here account for NFL Championships and Super Bowl Championships.

The Cowboys have won five Super Bowls (1972, 1978, 1993, 1994, 1996) over 64 seasons

The Giants have won four NFL Championships (1927, 1934, 1938, 1956) and four Super Bowls (1987, 1991, 2008, 2012) over 99 seasons

Washington has won two NFL Championships (1937, 1942) and three Super Bowls (1982, 1988, 1992) over 87 seasons

The Eagles have won three NFL Championships (1948, 1949, 1960) and 1 Super Bowl (2018) over 90 seasons

In the following sections, we took a look at each franchise’s all-time best players at various positions. Looking at individual players demonstrates how effective ownership and management are at drafting, trading and keeping players.

Our rating system for the next few sections goes like this: there are 100 points up for grabs and each player earns a percentage based on performance during their time with the franchise. Any stats achieved with another team doesn’t factor in to their rating.

All-Time Pass Leaders

Beginning with the quarterback position, we first determined each teams all-time best quarterback, then rated them against one another. Our winner in this category is Eli Manning and the New York Giants. Manning played 236 games with the team and leads the group in passing yards and touchdowns and brought two championships to New York.

He edges out Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys only slightly in this category, mainly because Aikman’s career was cut short due to injury, playing only 99 games with Dallas — Aikman has the highest completion percentage of the group (1% point above Manning) most average yards and touchdowns per game and brought the team three championships.

Our rating system goes like this: there are 100 points up for grabs and each QB earns a percentage based on performance during their time with the franchise. McNabb’s stats with Washington aren’t a factor for example. We looked at stats like passing yards, completion percentage, touchdowns, average yards per game, average TDs per game, number of championships won, and more.

All-Time Receiving Leaders

Art Monk came out on top in this category, playing over 200 games with Washington, leading the group in receptions and yards. Michael Irvin is a very close second, leading the group in average receptions and average yards per game, while Harold Carmichael won in the touchdown category in both overall TDs (79) and TD percentage.

All-Time Rush Leaders

The runaway winner in this category (pun intended) is Emmit Smith and the Dallas Cowboys. Smith lead in almost every category with numbers like 153 touchdowns, 17,162 rushing yards, and averaging 85 rushing yards per game. The only category he didn’t win, Tiki Barber edged out the group with 4.7 yards per carry, besting LeSean McCoy’s 4.6 YPC.

All-Time Sack Leaders

Leading the all-time sack leader category is Michael Strahan with 141.5 sacks over his 15 year career with the G-Men. Strahan narrowly beat out Lawrence Taylor for the Giants in this category — Taylor had 132.5 sacks in 48 fewer games.

Reggie White came in second on this list with 124 sacks for the Eagles. White went on to play six more seasons with Green Bay and one more with Carolina before retiring with 198 career sacks, just two behind Bruce Smith who holds the all-time lead.

Other key defensive metrics that influenced our results included Average Sacks Per Game (Reggie White, 1.02/game), and All-Time Tackles (Sean Lee, Dallas, 522)

All-Time Interception Leaders

We needed to go way back to find our all time leader in interceptions — back to the 1940s where Emlen Tunnell of the New York Football Giants was apparently giving opposing Quarterbacks fits, intercepting passes practically every game he played in. He retired as the all-time interceptions leader, a record that stood until 1979, when Paul Krause of the Minnesota Vikings broke it. Krause and Tunnell are still numbers one and two on the list.

And that brings us to the end! Drumroll please….

Results

And the winner — the Class of the NFC East is…

The Dallas Cowboys

Thanks for reading — we plan to update this again at the end of the 2023-24 season, so check back again. Questions, errors, concerns email chris@beastcoastcoffee.com

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Chris Hoenigmann Chris Hoenigmann

Class of the Metropolitan Division

Who is The Class of the NHL Metropolitan Division?

Great question, we’re going to tell you.

We took a look at metrics across thirteen different categories like Playoff Appearance Percentage, Playoff Series Wins Over the Past 10 Years, All-Time Team Points Leaders, and more. We weighted certain metrics, came up with a point system and have come to a definitive consensus. Let’s dive in!

The first, and perhaps most obvious metric to look at is Metropolitan (Met) Division titles:

The Capitals dominate this first category having won five of the possible nine — outside of Washington, only the Carolina have won multiple division titles going back to back in ‘22 and ‘23.

But that in itself reveals an important detail — the division has only been around for nine years and eight seasons (COVID ruined 2021) — it was established when the league restructured in 2013, so we can’t pull all our pucks in that bucket.

Playoff Appearance Percentage

This is one of the most important metrics in our opinion — a good team needs to earn a spot in the postseason on a consistent basis. And, maybe surprisingly, the class of the division in this particular metric is Philadelphia.

Historically, the Flyers been a very consistent playoff team, even if that hasn’t been the case recently (only the Devils have appeared in the playoffs fewer times over the past 10 years).

Still, we need to give credit where it’s due — the Flyers have made the playoffs an impressive 40 times in 55 seasons — that’s a 72.7% clip. They were a virtual lock for the playoffs through the entire 70s and 80s missing the postseason only twice and appearing in the Cup final 5 times, winning two. They went on another incredible streak starting in ‘95 making 11 consecutive appearances and 16 of 17 seasons from 1995-2012.

As you might expect, the Penguins and Capitals follow close behind right around 67%, and the division’s only Original 6 team, the Rangers, place fourth at 64.6%.

Playoff Appearances Last 10 Years

As we created the criteria for this assessment, we came to a consensus that we should place a little extra weight on recent performance specifically; so in this metric we look at each teams playoff performance over the past decade (2014-2023) — number of playoff appearances and playoff series wins:

Looking at these first two charts back to back reinforces why Pittsburgh and Washington probably feel like the class of the division — they’re at the top of both of these metrics, a picture of consistency while the Flyers have moved to the back of the pack.

It also shows how important the near-future is when it comes to perception. Crosby and Ovechkin have obviously helped their respective franchise’s image and success, but one player does not make a team. The Flyers had Giroux that 10 year span after all.

The two New York teams have done well in this category — The Rangers enjoyed a lot of success in the early part of this decade, making a Finals appearance in 2014, and the Islanders picked things up on the back end making three straight playoff appearances in the post-Tavares-era going to the Conference Finals in 2020 and 2021.

Stanley Cup Championship Percentage

So — it wouldn’t be fair to include Stanley Cup Wins as a metric — obviously — because some teams have been around much longer than others (Rangers were founded in 1926, the Blue Jackets in 2000). Although the Rangers have only managed four championships in their 96 seasons while, say, the Islanders won four in just 50 — still, it should have been a big advantage.

The fairest metric we felt was percentage (Cup wins ÷ number of seasons):

The Penguins have won the Stanley Cup an impressive 9% of the time — five cups total: two back-to-back in the Lemieux-era (1990-91/1991-1992) and three in the Crosby-era (plus a finals loss in 2008).

They’re followed closely by the Islanders who won all four of their cups consecutively in their 1980s dynasty years. The Devils land in third at 6% with three championships during the Brodeur-era.

The Blue Jackets are the only team yet to bring home the cup.

All-Time Goal Leaders

In the following sections, we took closer look at each franchise’s top players. The Face of the Franchise adds a lot of value to a team — it also shows how effective ownership and management is at drafting, trading attracting and keeping franchise players.

We’ll start with All-Time Goal Leaders — leading the pack here by leaps and bounds is the only player still active with his team — the Great Eight, Alex Ovechkin:

If you’re a hockey fan, you have to be excited about what Ovechkin is doing. At the completion of the 2023 season, he sits just 72 goals behind Gretzky’s record — a record nobody thought could be challenged. It’s not a definite that he’ll get there — that’s still a shitload of goals to score — but it’s going to be fun to watch him try over the next few seasons.

Super Mario holds the Penguins record in this category at 690 — at the time of this writing, Sidney Crosby is about 150 goals shy of that mark — Sid will probably need five more good seasons if he hopes to challenge that record, we’ll see what happens!

Behind Lemieux is arguably the best pure goal scorer of all time, Mike Bossy. Mike’s career — like Lemieux’s — was cut short due to injury, but he is the NHL’s all time leader in Goals Per Game at 0.762. Mario is right behind him in second — who knows what the record books might look like had those two stayed healthier.

No other teams premier goal scorers reached the 500 mark and only one player is still active — Eric Staal — who has scored 451 career goals for six different teams (at the time of this writing).

All-Time Point Leaders

Mario Lemieux leads this category with 1,723 career points which is good for eight on the all-time list. He’s also the only player in the top 10 that didn’t get to 1,000 games played — in fact he’s the only player in the top 40 that didn’t hit the 1,000 game mark. The Penguins have had no shortage of brilliant offensive talent over the years including Ron Francis who is on this list for the Hurricanes (Francis had 613 points for Pittsburgh, seventh all time for the organization). Second on the Penguin’s all time list is Sidney Crosby, who at the time of this writing sits at 1,470 points. He’ll need another four good seasons to catch up to Lemieux — should be fun to keep an eye on.

Ovechkin trails Crosby in this category, but he’s still tops for the Capitals. Peter Bondra, the previous record holder at 825 points, was passed by both Ovi and Nicklas Bäckström (1,016 points).

Trottier comes in at third on this list, nineteenth all time (1,425 points including his time with the Penguins in the early 90s. Nobody on the Islanders is close to approaching this record — Tavares was the perhaps the last hope before he left the franchise at 621 points, but even that was a longshot (he’s now at 948). For reference, Josh Bailey is the next active Islander on the list at 576 but his best days are behind him. The new face of Islanders hockey is Mat Barzal who might have the talent to put up numbers like this, but he hasn’t produced enough yet to seriously be in this conversation.

Philly’s last franchise player Claude Giroux got somewhat close to Bobby Clarke’s record before shipping out to Ottawa — he ended his tenure with the Flyers at 900 points. No active player is looks likely to make a run outside of maybe Travis Konecny, but not likely.

Patrik Elias was a stud — leading the Devils organization in points with 1,025. Jersey has new crop of offensive talent lead by Jack Hughes with a ton of hockey in front of them.

The Rangers have been around since the 1920’s and Rod Gilbert remains the only player in franchise history to surpass the 1,000 point mark and it will stay that way for a while, we don’t see anyone currently in the organization likely to challenge this record.

Ron Francis and Rick Nash round us out under the 1,000 point mark for their clubs (we include Hartford Whalers history with Carolina). Francis is fifth all-time with 1,798 points over the span of his career which was split between Hartford/Carolina and Pittsburgh. Sebastian Aho will likely challenge this record (447 points / 489 games played). Nash’s record may stand for a while — defenseman Zach Werenski might be the best possibility (245 points / 416 games played).

All-Time Point Leaders Defensemen

Look at the two New York teams dominating this category — they sit seventh and eighth respectively on the all-time list for defensemen (Leetch at 1,028, Potvin played his full career with the Isles). It’s especially impressive to see two of the league’s current premier offensive defensemen, Kris Letang and John Carlson, side by side with Leetch and Potvin — both Letang and Carlson are top-10 among active defensemen (3rd & 6th) and both approaching the 1,000 game mark (Leetch retired at 1,205 and Potvin at 1,060).

Zach Werenski will be fun to continue watching — the young defenseman has a lot of career ahead of him and we expect he’ll be up there with Letang and Carlson.

The other defensive metric that we included in this evaluation is Plus/Minus — in the future, we’re considering using Goals Above Replacement (GAR) as a metric as well.

All-Time Goalie Wins Leaders

God damn Martin Brodeur — doubt anyone will be touching this single-team record in our lifetime. He’s number one all time, in a class of his own — towering over Lundqvist (459 / 6th all time) and Fluery (536 with 4 teams / 3rd all time). Metropolitan division teams have been home to some of the best goalies, continuing with the new generation of talent in Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin and Carter Hart.

Other goalie metrics that we included in this evaluation are Save Percentage, Shutout Percentage and Goals Against Average.

Results

And the winner — the Class of the Metropolitan Division is….

The Pittsburgh Penguins

Thanks for reading — we plan to update this again at the end of the 2023-24 season, so check back again. Questions, errors, concerns email chris@beastcoastcoffee.com

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Data sourced from Champs or Chumps and Quant Hockey. All content and imagery is open for share and use, please just credit Beast Coast Coffee & Collectibles where relevant. Thank you!.

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Chris Hoenigmann Chris Hoenigmann

How Mets Fans Came to Love Chipper Jones

During his career Chipper Jones (or Larry, as fans liked to call him) was a thorn in the side of every Mets fan. It started in the late 90s when the Braves owned the NL East, winning division title year after year. Jones was of course a big reason for Atlanta’s success, but he always seemed to play even that much better against the Mets, like he took extra satisfaction in our misery.

He hit his first career home run at Shea Stadium — a game winner in the 9th inning — and he would go on to hit a total of 48 HR, 158 RBI and .309 average against the Mets over the course of his 19 year career.

After the Braves won a late season series at Shea which eliminated the Mets from playoff contention, Jones said it was “the next best thing to a World Series win”, and that “now all the Mets fans can go home and put their Yankees stuff on”.

He was a brash, outspoken southern-born ballplayer playing for a rival southern team — the perfect nemesis for a team from New York.

So how did Mets fans come to love Chipper Jones? I think it started with the September 11th Game in 2001:

 

The September 11th Game

The events of September 11, 2001 had an enormous unifying effect across the country, and put a lot of things into perspective. When the Mets and Braves took the field at Shea Stadium for the first game back just 10 days after the tragedy, the contentious rivalry became trivial. There was a feeling of camaraderie with everyone as both teams met at the center of the diamond before the game to exchange hugs, handshakes and well-wishes. It was comforting for fans to see the familiar faces — not just Piazza, Alfonso, Ventura, and those guys — but Chipper and the Braves as well.

 

“It was something I’ll never forget, and I never liked losing, but you could tell, we were gonna lose that game. There was just a higher power that was taking place that night.”

- Chipper Jones

 

When Mike Piazza stepped up with the Mets down in the bottom of the 8th inning and delivered the game winning two-run homer, you got the sense that nobody in the stadium, Braves players and fans included, minded that the Mets were going to win that game.

 

“People ask me about my all-time greatest games, I think the first game in New York after 9/11 is probably one, two, three and four.”

- Chipper Jones

 

The 9/11 game meant so much to the country and especially New York. Situations like those bring out different sides of people and that game in 2001 really shifted Mets fans’ perspective on Chipper and the Braves.

 

“This game meant more…it wasn’t a baseball game, it was us as baseball players doing our duty to provide some semblance of therapy to the fans of New York.”

- Chipper Jones

 
 

His Home Away From Home

Chipper called Shea his “home away from home”, which some take as an insult — it was his “home away from home” because he played so well there. But as his career progressed, he grew to have a genuine fondness of Shea and its fans. And the feeling was mutual. He had this to say about visiting New York in the latter part of his career:

 

“It was awesome. Yankees fans, Mets fans, people coming up to you and saying, ‘Hey, Chipper, take it easy on my Mets,’ or ‘Don’t beat my Yankees tonight,’ and it was just that kind of friendly banter that let me know that, hey, everything was cool.”

- Chipper Jones

 

In 2004, Chipper named his newborn son “Shea”. Some say he did it as a troll, but I never saw it that way. Shea Stadium was important to him and so was the fanbase. He enjoyed a lot of success there and I think a lot of that can be attributed to the environment in Queens. The Mets faithful took special interest in trying to get under his skin and to his credit, more times than not, he thrived under the weight of it. Something New Yorkers came to respect.

 

“A lot of people continue to say that I’m throwing shade on the Mets’ organization by doing that (naming his son Shea), that was not my intent whatsoever. Obviously I loved Shea Stadium; it was not a particularly nice place to play, but as far as I was concerned it was a cathedral.”

- Chipper Jones

 

When Shea closed, Chipper was sorry to see it go — he said he’d be among the first to purchase seats from the stadium when they go on sale.

 

Mutual Respect with Mets Players

Supposedly it was Mike Piazza that started the viral “Laaaa-rry” chant — he told reporters that he’s “not going to call a grown man Chipper” and revealed that he would call him “Larry” when he came up to bat and Mets fans ran with it.

In 1999, Mets pitcher Orel Hershiser accused Jones of stealing signs. He came up against Hershiser at Shea a few days later, and after ripping an RBI single to left he was heaving obscenities toward the mound as he rounded first.

Chipper came into the league cocky number one draft pick who wore his emotions on his sleeve and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially opposing teams and fanbases who had to deal with a guy that had an air of arrogance, and who could back it up.

Youthful arrogance gave way to a more easy-going, playful confidence. His relationship had been contentious with Mets players early in his career, but grew into one of respect and admiration later on.

 

“Alfonzo, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, even Mo Vaughn — I loved those guys. They were awesome players, but they were even better dudes. Yeah, there was a lot of respect for those guys over there.”

“Some of my favorite players that I’ve ever watched… I loved watching Edgardo (Alfonzo) play the game because he did it with little fanfare, he played the game the right way, accepted his role.”

- Chipper Jones

 

When Chipper was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018, he made a point to mention Mets star David Wright, whose career was beginning to come to a premature end due to injury.

“It’s unfortunate, because David, I think, could be one of the guys standing up there on the podium one day. He was certainly headed that way before injuries set in.”

- Chipper Jones

Wright, who played with Jones on the USA WBC Team, had plenty of respect for Chipper as well:

 

“Chipper has always been one of those guys that I admired and tried to mold my game after. Playing against him for the first few times was one of those ‘I made it’ moments as a young player.”

- David Wright

 
 

Mutual Respect with Mets Fans

In 2012 at his final road series against the Mets, the fans at Citi Field gave Jones got a standing ovation before the game, and he stepped out on the field to tip his hat to the fans.

“My dad has a picture of a guy holding up a sign at Citi Field on the day of my last game there, it was a big ol’ poster, and it said, ‘Laaa-rrry’ across the top, and underneath that is said, ‘Always yelled with respect,’ and wished me happy retirement.”

- Chipper Jones


The Mets organization presented Chipper with a gift during a pre-game ceremony dedicated to one of the teams biggest tormentors. It felt as if everyone was celebrating the fact that we didn’t have to play against him anymore as much as it was to appreciate the man and his career.

“They definitely respected him; that’s why they booed him so much. The utmost respect for him. And he respected New York and all that around there. He wouldn’t have named his son Shea if he didn’t have respect for them, too.”

- Terry Pendleton

There’s a great Reddit thread titled “What do Mets fans think of Chipper Jones”. Of course there are still some haters, but overwhelmingly, people were positive:

 
 

“I hated him out of respect. He killed the Mets.”

“Honestly, I hate when he plays the Mets, because he kills us. But as a player, i respect him. I will honestly be kinda sad when he retires, because I will miss the great matchups.”

“I used to hate the guy, but honestly now I respect the hell out of him. I feel like he's the only guy in the world that loved Shea Stadium more than me, he was great in a WFAN interview during the last series there.”

“A long scornful and hate filled relationship that caused me pain, suffering and gallons of tears has morphed into respect for a first ballot Hall of Famer.”

 
 

There was a great article written by Andrew Claudio on Gotham Sports Network “Dear Chipper Jones, A letter from one Mets fan to the 2018 Hall of Fame inductee” which ends with the following:

 

“So, from the bottom of this lifelong tortured Mets fan’s heart, congratulations on your well deserved induction into baseball immortality.

There will truly never be another villain quite like you… I hope.”

- Andrew Claudio

 

And I think that sums it up quite nicely.

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Chris Hoenigmann Chris Hoenigmann

Long Island’s Favorite New York Sports Team

We polled our fellow Long Islanders to see where loyalties lie when it comes to our beloved New York Sports teams. There were some surprises! Let’s count this down!

08. Brooklyn Nets

It seems that the Nets have yet to establish a strong fan base on the Island since their move from Jersey to Brooklyn. Only 11% of those polled selected the Nets as their favorite NBA team.

Score: 11%

07. New York Rangers

This was a surprise to us. The Isles / Rangers rivalry always felt pretty 50/50, but not in this poll. 33% of respondents chose Rangers as their favorite NHL team.

Score: 33%

06. New York Jets

The Jets haven’t won the Super Bowl since 1969. Hats off to this long suffering, loyal fanbase. A respectable 35% of respondents root for Gang Green.

Score: 35%

05. New York Giants

Giants fans edge out Jets fans just slightly — this was somewhat of a surprise also, given the Giants semi-recent championship titles in ‘07 and ‘12. Big Blue grabbed 38% of votes.

Score: 38%

04. New York Yankees

Arguably the most popular team on the planet isn’t the most popular team on the Island — less than half of those polled chose the Yankees.

Score: 41%

03. New York Mets

How about that — the Mets are Long Island’s baseball team. Which makes sense, Queen is a part of Long Island, geographically at least.

Score: 54%

02. New York Islanders

The Islanders are the most Long Island team there is, they’re the only professional sports team that actually calls Long Island home, spending most of its time in Uniondale, a little time in Brooklyn (we don’t like to talk about that) and now in Belmont.

Score: 61%

01. New York Knicks

Just narrowly edging out the Islanders for the number one spot are the New York Knicks — one percentage point separates the two teams chosen most in our survey. Long Island loves their blue and orange.

Score: 62%

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