Who wrote this? Before I get into the meat of it, I'm gonna be using PFF numbers so yes they are fucked up but it's the best you can really do and the numbers are tracked the same so their equally fucked for each player.
Anthony Spencer Is More Valuable To Dallas Cowboys Than You Think
8 hours ago
Ben Grimaldi
Monday night was the night the Dallas Cowboys found out what their team would be like without OLB Anthony Spencer, and I’m not sure they like the results. Obviously the score wasn’t what they wanted and neither was the play of Spencer’s replacement, Victor Butler.
Based on what? I thought he did a decent job. He fucking at least touched the QB while being blocked which is more than Spencer can say thus far.
Butler failed to record a sack and was credited with only one tackle on the game. He did manage to get one pressure on Jay Cutler, but when he failed to bring him down, the Chicago Bears managed to kick a field goal. Those three points were the first points in the game and put the Cowboys in catch up mode for the rest of the game. Other than the missed sack, Butler was invisible during the game.
Since when did 3 points ever put a team into "catch up mode"? A FG halfway through the 2nd quarter put Dallas in a hole? Shortly after Butler's missed sack, Carr is penalized for illegal contact to give a free first down.
And during the rest of the game he was invisible? He recovered the fumble that Ware caused. Guess that's shit too.
I know there are people out there who will claim that Spencer is no different than Butler, with the “close but no cigar” excuse for just missing the sack and that point has merit. Spencer isn’t called “Almost” Anthony for nothing. However, Spencer is a major force in the Cowboys run defense and actually leads the Cowboys with nine quarterback pressures on the year. Yes, more than DeMarcus Ware. Pressures aren’t sacks but they move a quarterback off his spot and make them get rid of the ball quicker than they want. Just asking here but don’t you think that is something that could’ve helped a great deal against an erratic passer like Cutler?
9 pressures? I don't know what site he's using but Ware has 9 hurries on PFF and Spencer has 7. Ware has 5 sacks, Spencer has 2. One shouldn't even count cause there was a facemask penalty on it and both were free runs at the QB. More pressures. Sweet. I guess Ware could slow up for a second and get fewer sacks to up his pressure stats.
Furthermore, what if the defender moves the QB off his spot but the QB runs for 1 or 2 yards before being tackled by another player. That's not a hurry? That happened against Chicago when Ware tackled Cuter from behind after Cutler stepped up in the pocket and started to run. Why did Cutler step up? Butler. He doesn't even know Ware is there but he saw Butler. Similar to one of Spencer's noted pressures against the Giants. He comes up the middle, forces Eli to move and someone else cleans it up.
The entire pressures aspect is weak to begin with. It doesn't describe anything regarding the outcome of the play. PFF credits Spencer with 4 against the Giants but I can't seem to find one. Of the three, 1 was a completed pass, another was a throw away and the third was the sack by another DL I noted above.
I think Spencer was missed in the run game as well. The Bears didn’t run for a ton of yards or a good average per carry but Spencer averages seven tackles per game. He’s much more physical than Butler and can wear an offensive lineman down with his power, another thing the Cowboys missed against a soft Bears front five.
So the Bears didn't run the ball but somehow Spencer's contributions were missed?
Interesting numbers for the two.
First column is snaps, second is tackles......think the 2nd to last column on the right is stops....last column some sort of rating they give out.
Pretty much a straight wash according to PFF.
Spencer averages 4 solos a game and gets in on 3 others. And not all those tackles are even in the run game so saying he was missed because Butler didn't get the tackles in the running game that Spencer usually does in both the running and passing game combined is just retarded.
I love how he says Spencer wears down offensive lineman like this asshole has stamina bars above all the players' heads for his broadcast.
Get the fuck out of here. Seattle didn't look like they broke a sweat when they were putting a foot in Dallas' ass.
Butler played mostly on the same side Spencer plays on. To that side, the Bears ran for 33 total yards on 10 carries. 9 Yards came on 1 run where the guard pulled around and took Butler. He looked to play it well at first but the guard got leverage on him and Forte went to the outside while Lee came tumbling in taking out Butler's legs.
I like Victor Butler, and he has a role on the Cowboys defense. But the small sample size didn’t turn out the way many Cowboys fans hoped on Monday night. Butler is very useful as a situational pass rusher, but Spencer is an every down player.
He may not be the definition of a franchise player, but we all saw what an $8.8 million player looks like, and he’s needed on the field for the Cowboys.
Is this a fucking joke? Spencer isn't even close to a $8.8M player. Simply because Dallas is paying him that much doesn't mean he's worth it. Roy Williams was never worth the picks or money it took watch his ass fizzle. Ken Hamlin wasn't worth anything close to what he was paid. Doug Free hasn't earned 1/10th of his weekly paycheck since signing that deal.
Spencer is needed on the field BECAUSE he is costing the team $8.8M, not because he gives you the value of $8.8M.
I'll give it to him, he's better in the run game than Butler. I think Butler held his own and set the edge well for the most part and had a play or two where he closed up holes by forcing the TE into it, one of which resulted in Bush basically doing his best Julius Jones impression by running up the ass of the guy in front of him and falling to the ground as Sean Lee came over to finish him off. I think Butler was acceptable in the run game but Spencer is the better player.
Spencer has much better hands than Butler, certainly more active, and as a result Spencer can disengage from the blocker and make tackles. But as the Bears game illustrates, Dallas wasn't up shit's creek in defending the run without him.
I think Butler is much better at pass recognition and looks much better in coverage. He covered Davis pretty well and even picked up Forte coming out of the backfield on a play or two and was right on his hip the whole way. The only real coverage issue I saw with him is when Chicago worked some sort of fucked up voodoo and isolated him on Brandon Marshall. I don't know how Rob Ryan could ever let a team's #1 WR get lined up on an OLB but it happened. As far as Spencer goes, he's given up TDs every year since at least 2009. That might not sound bad but when you consider that OLBs aren't usually credited with them, being the guy who's name is on the list almost every year is pretty shitty.
Here's how they have credited OLB TDs over the past few years. (Max #, Spencer #)
2012: 3 OLBs thus far have given up TDs (All 1, Spencer 1)
2011: 5 OLBs gave up TDs (All 1, Spencer 1)
2010: 11 OLBs gave up TDs (Woodley gave up 2, Spencer 1)
2009: 10 OLBs gave up TDs (Wimbley 3, Spencer 2)
2008: 7 OLBs gave up TDs (All gave up 1, Spencer 0)
The only year in the last 5 years that he didn't give up a TD was 2008 and he had less than 70 cover snaps that season and in all other seasons he's had more than 150.
As far as pass rushing goes, I don't think the difference is all that great. Spencer may get a few non-descript "pressures" but given equal opportunities at rushing I think Butler would get his hands on the QB more with hits and sacks. You can keep your pressures, I'd trade 3 for every QB hit and probably double for every QB sack. When the outcome of a pressure can be anything from an INT for the defense, an incomplete pass for the offense or a TD for the offense, what's the point in simply tracking how often a QB is forced to move off his spot and get rid of the ball. And how do you classify a play where the RT gives the OLB a free run with the QB baiting him to set up a screen behind him. I sure as hell hope that isn't a pressure and that's exactly what happened when Arizona beat Dallas in overtime with the screen to Stephens-Howling.
The real issue isn't about the difference between the two in itself because one guy comes with a restrictive price tag and the other guy doesn't. The question is, is the difference worth $8.8M when you have gaping fucking holes on the OL?
I said it all offseason, I can live with Butler if it means Dallas get some fucking linemen. If Butler plays as well as he did against the Bears, that'll get the job done. If Bernadette, Free, Tyron, Livings and Cooksta (whichever guy they wanna play) don't collectively play better, it will rarely get the job done.
The difference between Spencer and Butler is not needed in the sense that Spencer is light years ahead of him. It's only needed because Dallas is committed to paying for it and as a result, they need him to earn it. You lose nothing in pass coverage, lose very little (if anything at all) is pass rushing but you do lose what I would say is a significant amount of run stopping.
It's kind of pathetic someone would tear down a guy like Butler because he's not as good as Spencer, although not substantially worse, when Butler's cap hit this year is $740K and Spencer's cap hit is $8.8M
If the worst case argument you can make against Butler includes a sack that he and almost any other OLB would make 90% of the time and cannot point to specific instances where he was straight up beaten, pushed around, and overpowered in the any phase of the game, you really can't make a point at all. Minus a couple of stout run stops and maybe an additional pressure, what the hell was missing?
