Deeper Than The Kardashian Effect

There has been plenty of talks regarding Anthony Spencer.  Talks that he is trying hard not to listen to.  He only wants to focus on the 2012 season and making this Defense better.  He is participating in the OTAs and is doing everything that the Coaching staff needs him to do.

But one have to ask why do so many fans not want Anthony Spencer here?  What is he doing that so many did not want him to be offered a Franchise tag?  I compare him to being Khloe Kardashian. When you see the family portrait, you can easily see the faults that are there.  But when Klhoe is measured by herself to others, she is not that bad.  That is Anthony Spencer.  He is not the Sack Monster that DeMarcus Ware is, nor is he the Tackling Machine that Sean Lee is.   But the numbers show that he is not that bad.  He has 66 combined tackles last year.  This would add up to about one tackle per seven snaps.  He also had 31 QB pressures.  This was second only to DeMarcus Ware.  Not only that, but he may be the best run stopping linebbacker at his position.  He also forced four fumbles.  So he is capable of making plays.  The problem that I have with Spencer is timing.  Those stops, fumbles and pressures never happened at big time in games.  When we needed a play to get our Defense off of the field, he wasn’t there.

And out of those 31 pressures, he only registered six sacks.  When compared to the other Left outside Linebackers it is not that much.  Connor Barwin, Lamar Woodley, Ryan Kerrigan, Ahmad Brooks, and Jason Taylor all have more sacks than he did.  And when you are playing for the Cowboys who expects their Defense to get to the QB, six sacks is not enough.  Some of this is not on him.  He had alot of snaps where he would drop into coverage.  This is one of the responsibilities that falls on him.  Also, the secondary was a major weakness for us.  Many think that with an improved secondary Spencer should have more sack totals.  I sure hope that they are right.

Expectations are set before every player in the NFL, but when you are drafted in th first round, you are put in a position to be great.  That just might be the only thing that Anthony Spencer is guilty of.  He does his job, just not great.  He has the skills to do more and have a bigger impact on our pass rush.  We see that.  We see the work he puts in.  We just do not see the end result.  And having DeMarcus Ware put up double digit sack numbers for 6 straight years does not help his case.  It was Thomas Alva Edison who said “If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”  Is this the year that Anthony Spencer astounds himself and us as fans?  If he wants to be a Cowboy next year, he needs to.