Is the problem Anthony Spencer, or is he the victim of his surroundings?

Spencer could be ok if you had better guys around him

If you get Mario or Campbell or Avril you can’t afford to resign Spencer

If you trade up to get Coples or sign Jason Jones you can afford to resign Spencer.

Jason Jones would be a good guy to complement Spencer. Each of them could give you six sacks.

Outside of his average skills to slightly above average Spencer lacks the things that make you stand out besides numbers. HUNGER, INTENSITY, MOTOR.

So many believe he can be better or blame talent around him, sorry he is what he is. He’s a JAG point of blank period. Disappears for weeks at a time and I often forget he’s on the field.

But again he doesn’t play with that passion, drive, and intensity you wanna see from your defense. He’s not the only one as I believe you need to have your role players play that way to be a force on defense. But he has the privilege of playing opposite of D WARE so there will be more focus on him.

Remember he said it himself he mailed it in at times. I do not want that guy on my team at all. A guy like Ingram would be an instant upgrade with his hunger, intensity and motor alone. In this case Spencers numbers do lie. Yes they are adequate but do not make any difference or make plays of significance.

Spencers replacement will be key in the defense but the other role players will be too. With atleast 4-6 role players that are the RKG that play with passion, a motor, and intensity the defense will be way better. Guys like James, Spencer, Newman, Brookings, Coleman, and Ball all are too comfortable and don’t have those things anymore to go along with lack of impact talent.

Bradie James, Tony Romo, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, and Miles Austin are the core of the Cowboys. I find it more than coincidental that all of them established their work ethic under Parcells. Say what you wish about Big Bill, but the afore mentioned players have always been recognized as the hard-working soul of this team.

Anthony Spencer, Doug Free, Dez Bryant, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, and Felix Jones comprise the starters that were drafted under Wade. Every one of those players’ short careers have been marred by wild inconsistency.

From an athlete’s perspective, inconsistency is not a product of talent, but rather practice habits. The only athlete that has overcome poor practice supervision that was drafted by Wade is Sean Lee: a guy that does not need the structure that Parcells offered as a head coach.

Garrett wants to return to the structure that this team desperatley needs. Jason has not even had an entire off season to implement these changes. Yet most on this site want to blame the players for the lack of structure necessary for 90% of athletes.

Speaking from personal experience, most athletes need a strong coach to push them to levels that the athletes do not know they are capable of achieving. Sometimes this is called professionalism. It is a learned trait in most, but some athletes (I estimate it to be 10%) have it so engrained that it is manifested regardless of the environment.

Sean Lee is one of the 10%. Anthony Spencer, Doug Free, Dez Bryant, Mike Jenkins, and so forth need the structure provided through a well run organization. Under Wade, this structure was sorely lacking, and Jerry (a man that is also self-driven) has difficulty comprehending the necessity of having individuals pushed to excel.

Had Anthony Spencer been drafted under the Parcells regime, I doubt that he would be floundering now. The expectations set forth by Wade instilled that poor practice habits in the NFL (for the Cowboys) are permitted. When an athlete that lacks that internal motor is shown how to practice, and those habits are faulty, the athlete’s practice ritual is inherently flawed, leading to unfulfilled potential.

It is maddening to watch an athlete waste God-given talent (much like wathcing a good beer go to waste). Sometimes, however, the athlete’s limitations are not augmented by the coaching staff. Who is to blame in that case?

When Anthony spoke last season of his poor practice habits, that was a direct indictment of Wade’s management of the coches under him and the players. I do not completely absolve Spencer and the other players of blame, but it is difficult to hold them accountable for the environmental factors that exacerbated their weaknesses.

Afterall, it is the responsibility of the coaches to provide an environment conducive for the athletes to reach their full potential, regardless of the athlete. This is what the media pundits mistakenly identify as a lack of leadership on the team among the players. Stronger leaders would help, but in an environment devoid of structure, leadership cannot flourish.

seemed to flourish with the giants. My only hope, if we let him go, we don’t regret it.

Which is why I don’t know why everyone is pointing the finger at Spencer when that fact is we need an upgrade at DE more than we need an upgrade at LB.

It might be a good idea to replace Spencer but it is not an urgent problem.

The situation at DE and CB is what really need to be be fixed

The Cowboys need help on defense in this order

CB
DE
FS
ILB
OLB

Spencer is far down the list when it comes to the Cowboys problems.

He isn’t that much of a problem.

http://sturminator.blogspot.com/

Pat Kirwan: “We always talk about the 3-4 outside linebackers when talking with Bill Cowher, and he wants to start with his defensive ends. Go Study the tapes. Aaron Smith sets up a lot of things. He’s so good that he forces the tackle to go with him into the B-gap and then the outside rusher is on a back. The guys that build (The 3-4 schemes) will tell you to start right there (with the defensive ends). Not with the outside linebackers. They are the finishing touch – we are going to set it up so that they are going to be on backs a lot, and when that happens, you are going to win.”

“Most guys treat Dallas as if they are a 4-3 defense. They don’t believe DeMarcus is ever going to drop and they don’t believe the other guy is that much of a threat, so they look at you as if you are what we call a “4-3 Under”. If you stop the film right after the snap, the Cowboys look just like a 4-3 under defense all of the time."

“I think if you were playing a true 3-4, then Ratliff should not be a nose tackle. He should be out, just like Vince Wilfork, who is playing more as a 5-technique quite a bit now and I think Haloti Ngata got everybody creatively thinking about how to do it. But as long as you are playing basically a 4-3 defense and Ratliff is basically a 1-gap player, he’s ok there.”

Kirwan was then asked about the wisdom of ever dropping Ware into coverage. Why would you ever drop your best rusher into pass defense?

“You better do it once in a while, because if you don’t, they will just call him the end in the protection schemes and the tackle is always going to turn to him. And the guard will always turn to the “5-technique” and the back will always be on the (inside) linebacker."