DALLAS — All you have to do to pick the Cowboys to win the NFC East in 2009 with any degree of confidence is overlook three little factors as they relate to those things that are in the team’s way, namely the Giants and Eagles.

One is that the Giants and Eagles had better records and were playoff teams a year ago.
Another is that the Giants and Eagles added more interesting pieces to their team than the Cowboys did during free agency.
The last is that the Giants and Eagles have a 2009 draft to add to their depth.
What exactly do the Cowboys have to show for the draft, other than a kicker to produce touchbacks, presuming there will be a need for multiple kickoffs in games this season?
Coach Wade Phillips was just kidding when he stood outside the team’s Metrodome locker room Friday night and proclaimed his team champs of the NFC East.
“We finished 2-2 and everyone else was 1-3,” he said.
Nothing wrong with a little humor.
The only thing wrong would be anyone expecting a repeat this regular season.
Wait. It gets worse.
The Cowboys aren’t just the third-best team in the NFC East. For the 2009 regular season that begins in five days at Tampa Bay, they have the distinct look of the second-best professional team in the state of Texas.
Not that it matters when it comes to accumulating playoff wins — something the Cowboys have failed to do since the Switzer era — but you can book the Houston Texans to win more games this season than the Cowboys.
The Texans, yet to finish better than 8-8 in seven seasons, play a softer schedule in a more winnable division than Dallas. Their quarterback, Matt Schaub, may not be as good as Tony Romo but that difference is obscured by the Cowboys’ lack of a home-run hitter at wide receiver.
The Texans have Andre Johnson, who led the NFL in receptions and yards last season, and should be more widely known than he is.
The Cowboys have a bunch of wide receivers who should remain about as unknown as they are.
The things to like about the Cowboys include depth at running back and a willingness on the part of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to strive for more run-pass balance in 2009. A year ago, the only teams that ran the ball less often than the Cowboys were the dregs of the league, forced to pass in catch-up situations.
It’s also easy to like the way the schedule-maker has the Cowboys opening with three winnable road games the first five weeks. Tampa Bay, Denver and Kansas City should be among the bottom 10 teams in the NFL this season. Bottom five for all three is possible.
So the opportunity for excitement in September and October is real. The Cowboys and Eagles should be playing for first place or some share of it when Dallas goes to Philadelphia on Nov. 8.
If the Cowboys are still fighting for first when they get to New York on Dec. 6, then there’s hope. But that might be all because it begins the always dangerous end-of-season run in which Dallas will be challenged in all five games and might not be favored by more than three points in any.
The Cowboys close with the Giants, Saints and Redskins on the road and San Diego and the Eagles at home.
By then, we will have learned if an emphasis on the run and a commitment to second tight end Martellus Bennett and a return to brief 2006 glory by Roy Williams are enough to overcome the loss of Terrell Owens.
Take whatever side you choose on the Owens-as-divisive-force debate. Buffalo’s new receiver caught 38 touchdown passes for Dallas the last three years. That matches Hall of Famer Michael Irvin’s best five-year stretch in Dallas (1991-95).
That doesn’t make Owens a better player than Irvin. Emmitt Smith’s nose for the end zone had something to do with that numerical disparity.
But whether Owens was too combustible in the locker room or not, his explosiveness on the field is gone, as well. The Cowboys did not attempt to replace it in free agency or the draft.
The notion that they will cover for his loss by an alteration of style featuring more passes to backs and tight ends has merit. It’s just an awfully difficult way to travel, those 15-play scoring drives.
But it’s the only one the Cowboys have right now. And that’s a road that leads to 8-8 as the search for playoff success moves into another decade.