Like most of the Dallas Cowboys’ defense in 2011, defensive end Marcus Spears had a rough season last year.
Moved from his natural side on the left to the right, Spears managed just 16 tackles and a sack. In 2009, his last full season before 2011--he only appeared in 8 games in 2010--Spears had 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks to go along with two stuffs and a defended pass. Spears, a former first round pick out of LSU, has said since that the switch in position made him “uncomfortable.”
“It was a new position I’ve never played before. I’m a team guys and tried to do whatever helped us win, but I had some problems with it,” Spears said over the weekend, per the Dallas Morning News. “It’s like telling a right-handed shooter to shoot left-handed. It was completely different.”
The Cowboys have plans to return Spears to the left side in 2012, though, and Spears for one is looking forward to what he sees as a kind of homecoming.
“It’s like I’m finally home. I feel comfortable and we all love to feel comfortable,” he said. “Thank God I’m back over there at home.
“I want to come out and play well and get back to my form of being that run-stopper. I want to be a guy that’s reliable. I haven’t put up the gaudy sack numbers or (lived up to) the first-round hype that you get especially being drafted with DeMarcus Ware, but I’ve been doing my job for a long time at a high level and hopefully can continue to do that on the side I’m used to.”
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