Paul Domowitch: Spencer is Eagles' gift to Cowboys

"If Kevin Kolb turns out to be a good player, it may go down as one of the greatest trades in the history of the franchise."

- an Eagles executive earlier this year

IRVING, TEXAS - Mentioning Anthony Spencer's name to Andy Reid or Joe Banner is like mentioning Brad Pitt or John Mayer to Jennifer Aniston.

Spencer, of course, is the linebacker the Cowboys selected with the 26th pick in the 2007 draft; a selection they obtained from the Eagles in a draft-day trade that year.

He's also the guy who notched three of the eight sacks of Donovan McNabb last January in the Eagles' two ugly season-ending losses to the Cowboys, and the guy who finished with eight sacks in his last eight games, and the guy whose coach, Wade Phillips, recently compared him to Hall-of-Famer Rickey Jackson.

As evidenced by the quote above, the Eagles say they have absolutely no regrets about making that deal 3 years ago. Would they have preferred that Spencer turned out to be a Jon Harris-like bust? Sure.

But they point out that two of the three picks they got back from the Cowboys netted them Kolb, who is about to begin his first season as the team's starting quarterback, and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley. And the third pick in that deal afforded them the luxury of guessing wrong on safety C.J. Gaddis and still having a pick left over in the fifth round that year to guess right on a tight end out of the University of Cincinnati named Brent Celek, who had a team-high 76 catches last season.

Still, the reality is that the Eagles gave their archenemy the wherewithal to add what appears to be the final piece of a pass-rushing nuclear arsenal that could make Kolb's life miserable twice a year for seasons to come.

With Spencer on one side and DeMarcus Ware on the other, plus nose tackle Jay Ratliff coming up the middle, the Cowboys' pass-rush will present major problems for Kolb and the rest of the quarterbacks on the Cowboys' schedule this season.

"Pick your poison," the 6-3, 255-pound Spencer said.

"They can't double-team both of us," said Ware, referring to him and Spencer. "They can only get one."

With Spencer's emergence, Phillips thinks he has the best pair of outside linebackers in the NFL.

"Put those two together and I don't think there are any better," he said.

Ware already has established himself as one of the league's best pass rushers. He's notched 57 sacks over the last four seasons, including 20 2 years ago. He was slowed by neck, foot and wrist injuries much of last year and still finished with 11 sacks.

Spencer, who spent most of his first two pro seasons backing up Greg Ellis, had only four sacks in his first 39 games. Finally became a full-time starter last year on the strong side and helped the Cowboys finish fourth in the league against the run and finished second on the team to Ware in quarterback pressures. But he didn't get his first sack until the 11th game. Then it was off to the races.

"It was a lot of things," said Spencer, explaining his late-season sack surge, which also included 16 pressures in those last eight games in addition to his eight sacks. "It was me being more committed to the little things. Just making sure I did them all the time and being a lot more consistent in practice.

"Being in the game the entire time, it just changed things. I was in better shape. I was able to see things develop and diagnose them. Seeing different formations and the way they ran certain things. It's just gives you an advantage the more you're out there. Once you start making those plays, it becomes a lot easier to make them all the time."

Phillips says Spencer is as good a SAM linebacker as any he's coached. That's high praise for a guy with just 22 regular-season starts. But that's how impressed the Cowboys coach has been with him.

"Anthony has to drop [into coverage], he has to whip the tight end, and then he has to rush," Phillips said. "Being able to do all three of those things, he came on in the middle of last year and just played as well as anyone I've been around."

Having a player such as Ware on the other side helped Spencer immensely. Offenses have to shift their blocking schemes toward Ware's side of the field, giving Spencer plenty of one-on-one opportunities. And he took advantage of them.

"It's nice having DeMarcus on the other side," Spencer said. "We see everything. Everybody shows us different things. By the sixth or seventh game, we've seen every type of blocking scheme that we're going to see for the year.

"It's great having him on the sideline with me, too. Just because he's been through so many different games and has been blocked so many different ways. You can talk to him when they're doing certain things.''

With Ware and Spencer coming off the edges and the 6-4, 303-pound Ratliff coming up the middle, quarterbacks have nowhere to run.

"With those two guys, you can't key on one or the other," said Ratliff, who had seven sacks last year and 7 1/2 the year before. "If you key on DeMarcus, then you're going to have Spence [coming free]. If you key on Spence, you're going to have DeMarcus. Pick your poison. They're both great players."

Send e-mail to pdomo@aol.com.