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Giants safety Antrel Rolle picks the Eagles to finish third in NFC East

    by Jimmy Kempski
    Published 

According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, Giants safety Antrel Rolle offered his full NFC East predictions on ESPN. Audio no longer seems to be available (Dan's link to the audio re-routes to the generic "First Take" page on ESPN.com), but Rolle has the NFC East ordered like this:

Rolle explained that the Eagles' offense can be shut down.

"I think if you have the right defensive scheme against the Eagles, you can definitely shut them down," he said. "I think we displayed that in the second game we played them. As far as Washington, I think Washington has more weapons, and I think they added more weapons, especially to the offensive system. I think RGIII will definitely bounce back and have a better season this year. And defensively, I think they've added a lot of veteran leadership to their defense that's gonna help them out a whole lot."

When the Giants shut down the Eagles' offense in that second game last season, they faced a one-legged Michael Vick and Matt Barkley. When they faced a combination of a heathy Michael Vick and Nick Foles in the first matchup, the Eagles hung 36 on them.

Also, I'm not sure what Rolle is talking about when he says the Redskins "added a lot of veteran leadership to their defense." I assume he means Ryan Clark? Maybe Tracy Porter? The great Akeem Jordan? Of course, they also lost London Fletcher to retirement this offseason.

Rolle weighed in on DeSean Jackson moving a few cities down I-95.

"I think that's a huge move for them," he said. "I think he's definitely gonna help the Redskins out a lot. DeSean Jackson is a phenomenal player in this league, and I think he has a chip on his shoulder. I think he has something to prove. So I wish DeSean the best of luck to go out there and do what he does best, which is to make big plays. But against the Giants it's going to be a different story."

As noted above, audio of Rolle's predictions could not be found, but I'll bet he said "at the end of the day" a lot.

Update: Found the video. Rolle did not say "at the end of the day." He also did not mention Eli Manning's #27INTs last season. But he knows. He knows.

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