Since the departure of Greg Ellis earlier this week, I have had a question tumbling around in my head. Can Anthony Spencer take the next step? I have yet to be able to answer this question.
The opinions, much like the Swine flu, are wide spread. Although I do not feel we should be wearing a mask and disinfecting everything we touch when trying to figure this out, the thought did cross my mind though.
Anthony Spencer has shown flashes of brilliance and mediocrity. Just when we think he is taking the next step, he fails to do the most elementary of tasks or gives a lack luster effort.
Anthony has as much talent as you could ask for in a 3-4 scheme OLB, so what seems to be his major hold up? That is a question I have been struggling with – on one hand one could say that he is a little lazy (as evidence showed in hard knocks last year by failing to go to rehab) but you might also say he lacks drive. Then on the other hand one could reasonably say that “well he is a young guy, and with the small number of reps he has had it is just going to take a little more time.”
As the old saying goes “There are two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle!” and this case is no different.
The time however has come for Anthony Spencer to either “shit or get off the pot!” Neither the Cowboys nor he have the luxury of him giving half hearted efforts. There are several young men who were recently drafted by the Cowboys, eager to take that spot.
As a general rule I try not to question a professional athletes “drive” too much, just because if you have made it to “The League” you have obviously been at least somewhat driven, and who am I to speculate on what they have been through to get where they are, because if it were easy we would all be doing it!
The hope is that Anthony has been paying attention and absorbing all he could from Greg Ellis and DeMarcus Ware, and that he has been training hard, and is ready to explode onto the scene this year.
This is his chance! And there will not be another chance quite like this one, and he knows it. Now he just needs to prove that he deserves it, and if he does no one will question the decision to release Greg Ellis.
Spencer will have the opportunity this year to wreak havoc on opposing team’s quarterbacks. Teams will be focusing their attention towards the likes of DeMarcus Ware, Bradie James, and Jay Ratliff leaving Spencer in one on one situation’s.
The thing that concerns me about Spencer is he has shown a knack for having big plays and big games, followed immediately by such sloppy, and half hearted play. These things simply do not just go away.
The team has now completed its OTA campaign for this year, and while there was certainly a lot of talk about him getting the opportunity, there was not much talk about his actual play during those OTA’s.
I understand that there are no pads being worn and it they are primarily walk through and individual work outs, but with as much talking as Wade Phillips likes to do about the status of his players, it’s been somewhat odd to not hear anything about Spencer, Don’t you think?
The jury is still out on Anthony Spencer and will probably be in deliberations for quite a while yet. So for now I am going to wait on answering my questions concerning him, how long I hold onto them is in his hands.
What do you think – Can he be what we all want him to be? Or is he the second coming of Barbie Carpenter?
Anthony Spencer received rave reviews coming into the season last year, however, the combination of injury and the presence of a malcontented veteran slowed his progress. I, for one, have fewer questions about Anthony’s ability then most of the young players currently projected as starters. Will Mike Jenkins hesitancy to make plays spill over from last year? Was Orlando Scandrick play a fluke? Is Gerald Sensabaugh the cover safety we hope he is? Can Mike Mickens make the transition from college well enough to be relied on in the Dime? Can Felix Jones stay healthy? Was Tashard Choice explosion on the scene the result of playing against players that had slowed with season wear and tear?
The main knocks on Anthony Spencer, in my opinion, is mental. Has he learned to stay in his lane, rather than trying to use his speed to move round potential blockers to make the play. That is a rookie error, that is understandable for a player moving from DE in the 4-3 to OLB in the 3-4. In terms of physicality, he could be compared to Demarcus Ware. And if he is 80% the player that Ware is, I think we can expect a pretty solid tandem of LB’s, which in the 3-4, is the most important key to a successful defense.
Very well said! While he may not be one of the main areas of concern on this team, he can surely help take the pressure off some of the others.
I don’t know about you guys.. But I am pumped about Spencer. I feel like he is going to be everything we want him to be, maybe not right away, but give it time!
I hope so! Hopefully he has grown up a little bit, and is ready to take advantage of his opportunity!
That’s what I’m hoping for. His little incident off the field doesn’t worry me very much, I mean who wouldn’t let loose after a loss like that at the end of a year like that.
But he is still quite inexperienced when it comes to the pass rushing game, though good against the run. I wonder how well he’ll handle the pressure of the starting job on his shoulders alone.
Perhaps this is wishful thinking writing, but my guess is one of the reasons the Cowboy’s allowed Ellis to walk so soon before training camp has two-fold wisdom: one, they wanted to grant Ellis the respect he deserves, being one of our more tenured veterans, allowing him time to catch on with another franchise prior to the season and two, they wanted Anthony Spencer to understand, prior to the true training camp beginning, that the Cowboy’s are placing alot of confidence in him to step up. I’d imagine, as a result, Spencer is training harder to prepare himself for the upcoming season then he would, if he was slotted to share snaps with another player.
The other aspect of this for him to consider are the 4 linebackers the Cowboys drafted. Sure, Jason Williams and Stephen Hodge have been slotted as ILB, but that’s not written in stone. If any of the four show they can shine above what Spencer is doing, he is probably not so safe that he can assume the job is his regardless of what player he shows up as in training camp.