To Jerry Jones and here is why:

First, let's look at Greg Ellis in 2008 and 2009

2008  36 Tackles  (25 solo/11 assist)  1 tackle for loss for 3 yards   1 pass defensed  8 sacks   0 fumbles forced   0 recovered   1 int

2009  23 tac (20/3)   0 tfl for 0 yards   1 pd  5 sacks 1 ff  0 frec  0 int

Now look at Spencer in the two years:

2008  34 tac (22/12)   0 tfl for 0 yards   0 pd    1.5 sacks    0 ff    0 frec   0 int

2009  40 tac (29/11)   6 tfl for 14 yards   6 pd     2 sacks    0 ff   0 frec   1 int

Yep, Ellis is more accomplished with sacks... and that's it. Spencer is a better run defender, by far it looks like to me, and a better pass defender. Plus, I would love to compare hurries but I don't know where to find that stat. I suspect Spencer's doing well there. So, from a production standpoint it's at least been a push and I think the Cowboys are better.

And let's take three intangibles. One, Ellis's experience, which was nice to have around but Ware, Spears, Spencer, Ratliff, et. al. are not in their first trip anymore. It wasn't as needed as last year and in 2007. Two, media stuff. I don't think Ellis's whining did much more than irritate us as fans and provide columns for writers, nevertheless I for one am glad not to hear about it. Three, age. Ellis is definitely on the back end of his career bell curve. He was a good player for us, and I don't even regret taking him over Randy Moss because of the other stuff at the time, but Spencer is still on the up slope and will get better for a while, as we have seen this year.

So, whatever else you want to complain about Jerry's GM decisions, this should not be one of them. He went with the younger, faster, more dynamic, more versatile player in Spencer and he's getting rewarded. You can say that we'd like to have the depth Ellis provides, and we would, but we all know Ellis would not accept not starting, and that's what Spencer is now, a starting OLB and a good one.