The Year of Selvie

The following was written by John Daigle, our special contributor, on the career developments for Cowboys DE George Selvie.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Considering George Selvie has been somewhat of a revelation to the Dallas defense, I feel like it's best to start with what we do know before we continue on.

• Way back in '07, he became a household name throughout college football, winning Big East DPOY while also leading the NCAA in tackles for loss and being named a consensus All-American. And, for what it's worth, he finished second in the NCAA in sacks, trailing Indiana's Greg Middleton by two. (It's ok. I've never heard of him either.)
• Sure, he might be a good 6'4, 270 lbs. now, but back at USF he had a considerably tough time putting on weight.
• His consistent statistical drop off over the last two seasons may or may not have been due to more teams being aware of his presence. But, unless you're the Steve Sabol of Southern Florida and want to send all that film this way, there's really no way to know.
• This isn't the same Selvie that's been in the league since 2010. 

Emphasis on that last point.

In fact, it's not even close, especially since Selvie now spends his Sundays wreaking havoc as opposed to…well, let's take a look.

2010 

For the record, the next four plays only "highlight" Selvie's sacks because, simply put, he didn't really do much outside of that. You would think playing next to Chris Long and the once highly-touted Jeremy Mincey would positively effect his career, but it apparently only led to few pressures and even fewer impactful plays (an average of 10 tackles per season, to be exact.)

Selvie's first sack of his career was actually pretty easy. Nothing spectacular, but effective.  Simply put, Hasselbeck dropped back, Selvie rushed into a double-team, and once Hasselbeck stepped up into the pocket, it was all over.

The following week, practically the same thing occurred.

 Look familiar?

2011

During the final week of the 2011 season, Selvie finally beat a tackle to the quarterback.

Sort of.

2012

And in my personal favorite moment of Selvie's illustrious three-year career before joining Dallas, he was clearly dominated at the line, only sacking Stafford once he scrambled for a gain of a yard towards the sidelines.

Fast-forward to this season, where Selvie is completely dominating a majority of his one-on-one matchups, shedding blockers at an abnormal rate, and creating numerous unforced errors. 

Below are his three sacks of the 2013 season, but take into account that those come alongside 11 tackles (already the second-most of his career) and a fumble recovery.

During a simple stunt (something that's become quite common for the 2013 Cowboys) on second and goal versus the Giants, Hatcher and Sims pushed their guys inside while Lee came charging from the middle of the field, rushing the left side of the line. Of course, Selvie reached Eli untouched before half of that even evolved (which was probably due in part to Wilson missing his block, but if we've come to know anything, it's that Wilson typically misses his block.)

In one particular instance against the Rams, the Cowboys rushed four (the constant), faking a Lee-blitz before dropping him into zone coverage. 

It may have been your everyday run-of-the-mill zone blitz, but the results were the same.

And against the Chargers last Sunday, Selvie once again shined. 

This breakout could be due to a number of reasons. For instance, maybe Marinelli and Kiffin really do get the best out of their players. Maybe Selvie just needed a more simplistic defensive scheme to work out of. Or, you know, maybe he just spent the offseason cracking his knuckles and straightening that limp out.

Whatever the reason, my guess is that you'll definitely hear from him again.