Today, we need distinguish the difference between fantasy football and real football from the standpoint of a general manager of one of 32 franchises. I believe a lot of the rhetoric that surrounds the offseason plans of the Dallas Cowboys is generally fun for fans and media to throw onto a wall and see if it sticks, but not practical to a real team that has to have every position fortified when the season begins or it will get a 5 month reminder that they made a really poor decision.
We can sit at a table over a beverage and a pizza and say that Terence Newman must go and that we don't care who replaces him in February. But, when the Cowboys have lost 3 out of 4 next September because they have no cornerbacks, we might care who is replacing him, right?
For instance, somewhere inside Valley Ranch, there were discussions last spring and summertime about the performance and future of long-time Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode. His play had been dropping from one of the better centers in the sport down to a guy who was sliding by on reputation. Poor shotgun snaps and occasionally being beaten on pass protection were reasonable critiques about a player that was in decline and commanded a pretty salty salary.
So, the decision was made that along with Marc Colombo and Leonard Davis, the Cowboys were going to jump into the deep end of the pool without a life preserver and release Gurode at the end of training camp. Surely, they thought that he could be replaced by "anyone" and that he was a guy that we will not miss.
In 2011, Gurode was picked up by Baltimore and did not play well. His decline did continue and he spent the end of the season watching the Ravens offense play from his spot in the sideline. Their evaluation of the direction of his career was not off at all. What was off was the players they had behind him who would snap the ball and center the Cowboys OL for 1,000+ plays in 2011. Phil Costa represented the "anyone" that they thought could replace Gurode, and they were badly mistaken. As declined as Gurode's play was in 2010, the drop off to Costa in 2011 was gigantic. Costa was over-matched in many games and made the middle of the Cowboys line a constant target for stunting and collapsing on run and pass plays alike.
The lesson learned there was simply this: If a player is only a "5 or 6" on the scale of 1-10, you can certainly get better if you replace him with an "8 or 9", but you will also really miss him if you replace him with a "2 or 3". In other words, you better have a plan in place when you want to get rid of one of your veterans, or you may find out that you actually could do worse than the guy you have at that position right now.
Which brings us to both the case of Newman (who I am certain will not be back) and the far more controversial discussion of what to do with Anthony Spencer.
I spent Saturday tweeting a bit about Spencer and here were some of my thoughts:
* I like Alabama's Courtney Upshaw to play OLB. However, he kinda reminds one of Anthony Spencer.
* And to be clear, I think Spencer is a good to pretty good LB and average pass rusher. Not bad, but not dynamite for sure.
* Look, we all want a bookend at OLB for Ware. Nobody is arguing that. But, you better have a plan for that spot, beyond "anybody".
My thoughts on Spencer were met with a number of replies that couldn't believe I would dare to defend Anthony Spencer.
I am certainly not sure that Twitter and 140 characters is the best way to discuss the play of a football player in proper detail, but I hope my point is clear from those tweets and this previous essay on Spencer; You better understand what he is and that what he is will not be replaced "with a warm body".
He is the 2nd OLB in a 3-4 defense and therefore should be compared to those in that same category. To compare him to other #1's like Brian Orakpo, Tamba Hali, or Cameron Wake is not practical. That is DeMarcus Ware's job. He matches up against the other guy, and let's see how that works. Let's look at the "2nd Best" in terms of sack totals that outperformed Spencer of the 3-4s in the NFL in 2011:
| Player, Team |
Sacks |
Tackles |
| Kerrigan, Wash |
9 |
40 |
| Harrison, Pitt |
9 |
38 |
| Taylor, Mia |
7 |
11 |
| Spencer, Dal |
6 |
53 |
HTML Tables
| Player, Team |
Sacks |
Tackles |
| Woodley, Pitt |
9 |
30 |
| Spencer, Dal |
5 |
53 |
HTML Tables
