Eagles seek elusive NFC East repeat on path to another Super Bowl title

The Philadelphia Eagles are aiming for another Super Bowl championship.

Just don’t call it a repeat, even if that word will be thrown around plenty in the NFC East, a division that hasn't had consecutive titles from the same team since the Eagles won their fourth in a row in 2004.

The Eagles have struck “repeat” from their vernacular this season as Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts, 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown go for another “two-peat” — division and NFL championships.

“Everything else is in the past,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “I think that when teams are trying so hard to repeat or trying so hard to recapture, there’s two mistakes that they make. They either are looking at their past accomplishments or they’re looking too far into the future of how do you do that again? And it’s really about the daily grind that you go through day in and day out. There’s a mental toughness to being able to do that and go through that every single day."

The Eagles return most of their key starters on both sides of the ball, many in their primes and signed to long-term deals. They could be championship contenders for years to come.

Barkley had a career year in his debut with the Eagles. He ran for 2,504 yards in the regular season and playoffs, breaking Terrell Davis’ record for most yards rushing combined in one season.

Barkley had 2,005 yards in the regular season before sitting out the final game with a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season mark. The Eagles rewarded him with a two-year contract extension with $36 million guaranteed.

Barkley expects bigger and better in Year 2.

“It definitely helps having another year in this organization and in this building,” he said. “I’m familiar with everybody. Stuff that I got into my routine later on in the season, it’s already part of my routine now. It’s just helpful, from the training staff to nutrition to strength coaches. It all just gets better naturally when you’re here longer.”

The only topic that really mattered throughout training camp after Washington surprised everyone by reaching the NFC championship game last season was wide receiver Terry McLaurin’s desire for a new contract. The issue was finally resolved after the preseason.

He went from a brief holdout to a hold-in while on the physically unable to perform list because of an injured ankle, to off the PUP list but still not practicing.

McLaurin and AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels formed a terrific combination and were expected to go nowhere but up.

Dan Quinn stayed on message on McLaurin — “It’s part of the business of the NFL, and I don’t judge it or get too worked up about it,” the coach said — and players also steered clear of drama.

But there’s no question it was a thing, maybe the first real blip under the current triumvirate of owner Josh Harris, general manager Adam Peters and Quinn.

Daniels is an ascendant star, widely considered among the league’s elite quarterbacks already. Peters went out and added some big-name veterans, including left tackle Laremy Tunsil, edge rusher Von Miller and playmaker Deebo Samuel.

“Just watching them play on Sundays for some time, and now watching them up close and personal — like, you can see why Von is going to be a Hall of Famer,” Daniels said. “You can see why L.T. is one of the top left tackles in the league. You can see why Deebo was All-Pro.”

There are questions on defense, particularly in the secondary, so if the Commanders end up needing to score a lot, a happy McLaurin will help. The two-time Pro Bowler agreed to a $96 million, three-year extension.

After tying for the NFL’s worst record at 3-14 last season, the Giants moved on from quarterback Daniel Jones, signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston and traded back into the first round to draft Jaxson Dart.

Wilson goes in as the starter with Dart being groomed for the future, though that could be sooner than later, given the Mississippi product’s strong impression in training camp and preseason games.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” Wilson said. “He works at it every day, and he asks the right questions. That’s what I enjoy about him.”

The success of the offense revolves around Wilson, now 36, and young receiver Malik Nabers, who had 109 catches for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie.

Defensively, the Giants hope they made a strong pass rush even better by drafting Penn State linebacker Abdul Carter third overall. Carter joining nose tackle Dexter Lawrence and edge rushers Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux should help a beleaguered secondary, which has new faces in cornerback Paulson Adebo and safety Jevon Holland.

“We’re bringing in two vets that know how to play the game,” cornerback Dru Phillips said. “We may put a (different) scheme in and they’re brand new here, but they came in like they knew it. They’ve played this type of stuff before at a high level, so you can experiment with a lot of new stuff and you can have a lot of versatility.”

The Dallas Cowboys haven't finished last in the division in 10 years. After they resolved their contract standoff with star edge rusher Micah Parsons by trading him to Green Bay on Thursday, that could well be where they're headed.

Even with Dak Prescott healthy again at quarterback, the Cowboys have presented first-year coach Brian Schottenheimer a monumental task without the two-time All-Pro who's just entering his prime at age 26. Parsons, the 2021 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, reported for camp but didn't practice at all and publicly requested to be dealt.

The moping got progressively worse, capped by Parsons lying on a training table on the sideline during the preseason finale.

Dallas has questions at running back and on the offensive line, and a thin secondary until 2021 All-Pro Trevon Diggs returns from a second major knee injury, which could happen early.

For the Cowboys to be competitive, Prescott must show his MVP runner-up form of 2023, when he led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes before a hamstring tear ended his 2024 season after eight games. His 10th season features a new playmaker outside to complement CeeDee Lamb in George Pickens, who was traded to Dallas by Pittsburgh.

“Just with the experience of this game, having the teammates and the players that I have around me, getting into a new year with a new coach and a new energy with such a youthful team, I see somebody who feels young again,” the 32-year-old Prescott said.

Eagles, Commanders, Giants, Cowboys.

AP Sports Writers Howard Fendrich, Dan Gelston and Stephen Whyno contributed.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott stands on the sideline watching play in the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Richard Rodriguez)

New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson (3) passes the ball against the New York Jets during the first quarter of an NFL football game, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is seen before a preseason NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

BERLIN (AP) — European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

The U.S. government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.

The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

“Pax Americana” refers to the U.S.’s postwar dominance as a superpower that has brought relative peace to the globe.

Merz warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.

Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”

Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, leaves through a hotel garage for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,stands in his office in the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, watches Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arriving at the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)