The NFC East is there for Washington’s taking — not just this year but moving forward

There is an opening — right here, right now, beginning with Monday evening’s game at Pittsburgh — and it’s worth driving through. As easy as it is to dismiss the division as, um, substandard — and I have — there’s also a way to assess Washington’s spot in it and come away thinking: Which of the other three teams is in a more stable situation than the Football Team?

That’s not just saying Washington is the humblest Kardashian or the healthiest doughnut, either. Look at Washington against the three division rivals — even after the New York Giants’ upset Sunday in Seattle, helped by old pal Colt McCoy. There are problems everywhere — this season and in the future.

First-year coach Ron Rivera is in Washington this year and beyond, and there’s a sense he is just getting started — even if his quarterback situation in the future is indecipherable, even if a new nickname hasn’t been chosen, even if the plan for a new stadium hasn’t been hatched. There have been wobbles with messaging, and they have been noted. Nonetheless, he presents as solid and stable — a quality not really in place elsewhere in the division.

Go down the list. First-year New York Giants coach Joe Judge has won four in a row and is in first place. But he fired his offensive line coach midstream and has an issue at quarterback, where Daniel Jones has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns and is now injured, leaving the job to former Washington backup McCoy.

The Dallas Cowboys have the division’s most viable long-term quarterback — assuming Dak Prescott comes back from this year’s serious ankle injury. But Prescott doesn’t yet have a contract extension, first-year coach Mike McCarthy looks like a shaky hire, defensive coordinator Mike Nolan looks worse, and who knows what Jerry Jones will do about any of those issues in the offseason?

And it might be worse in Philadelphia, where each Eagles game is a referendum on quarterback Carson Wentz, who entered the weekend with the lowest quarterback rating and lowest completion percentage of any signal caller who had played at least 10 games. That’s not a small group, either. Of 23, he’s 23rd. And Sunday, it was rookie Jalen Hurts who handled a fourth-quarter comeback attempt in Green Bay. The intrigue only increases.

Look, I’m on the record as saying Rivera’s task isn’t as much to win the NFL’s worst division as it is to build a sustainable winner — for a franchise that has had back-to-back winning seasons once this century. That line of thinking holds — and Rivera agrees with it.

Look at what he said about the Steelers — the NFL’s only remaining unbeaten team, a franchise without a losing record since 2003. They’re headed to the playoffs for the 11th time since then, a span in which they have won two Super Bowls and played in another.

“They’ve been able to sustain it,” Rivera said last week. “If you go back and look at it, there was a stretch there that was rough for them [no playoff victories from 2011 to 2014]. But they stayed consistent. They stayed with what they had. They stayed with their model. They stayed with their philosophy. They stayed with their culture. Now look at where they are.”

If Rivera is to build anything resembling that, it has to start somewhere — even with a playoff run that begins at 4-7. It’s also apparent that despite the middling record, this next month could be fun. In the past five games, Washington has averaged 385 yards. Alex Smith’s comeback from near leg amputation and possible death — still amazing that those aren’t exaggerations — gives Washington a story line that resonates nationally. Terry McLaurin is developing into perhaps one of the top — pick a number — five or 10 young wide receivers in the league. Antonio Gibson is an intriguing prospect in the running game. Let’s see how this plays out in 2020 — and sets up for 2021.

Now, let’s also be clear: It has been more than a minute since Washington faced anything that resembles a decent team. Like, nearly three months! That opponent, back in October, was the Los Angeles Rams — the first game of the post-Dwayne Haskins era (was it even an era?), the first game of the Kyle Allen experience, the first game of Smith’s comeback, a sloppy affair in a driving rain at FedEx Field that Washington lost, 30-10.

Since then, the combined record of Washington’s opponents — the Giants twice, the Cowboys twice, Detroit and Cincinnati — is a combined 14-31-1. Washington revived its relevance by going 3-3 against that sorry lot.

So here comes Pittsburgh, more insurmountable object than measuring stick — much like the league perceived the Seahawks to the Giants on Sunday. Keep in mind that in almost all other seasons, a 4-7 record to start December would represent some form of playing out the string — though it’s also worth pointing out that the past four Washington playoff runs began in a similar place.

Five years ago, Jay Gruden and Kirk Cousins were 5-7 and finished with four straight wins. Three years earlier, Mike Shanahan and rookie Robert Griffin III started 3-6 and ripped off seven straight victories to close the year. Five years before that, Joe Gibbs and elevated backup Todd Collins were 5-7 before winning their last four. And all the way back in 2005, Gibbs and Mark Brunell were 5-6 before running off five straight to close the regular season and posting Washington’s only playoff victory this century.

Man, just going over those results makes clear what it would be cool for Rivera to do as soon as next year: build a team that could have a season in which Washington was playing from ahead. Imagine starting 3-1 and then being, say, 8-3 at the bye and finishing 11-5. Seems foreign, doesn’t it? For anyone born after Washington’s last Super Bowl title — which is anyone in her or his 20s — it is foreign. The last Washington team with at least 11 wins: 1991.

This Washington team can’t reach 11 wins. Doesn’t matter. Neither can anyone else in the NFC East. Washington hasn’t been normal and competitive and consistent for a generation. Now, in the disaster of a division that surrounds them, normal and competitive and consistent might be enough to sustain success year over year.