Cowboys Place Spears, Owusu-Ansah on IR

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears and rookie safety Akwasi Owusu-Ansah on injured reserve, ESPNDallas.com’s Tim MacMahon reports.

Spears (6-4, 311) strained a calf during Sunday night’s 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers, an injury that will end his consecutive games streak at 88. A former first-round pick out of LSU, Spears started 78 of those games, totaling 185 tackles and 8 quarterback sacks.

A restricted free agent this off-season, Spears was offered a lesser tender than his draft status warranted, making it likely that the Cowboys will let him move on as a free agent next off-season.

Owusu-Ansah was a fourth-round pick (126th overall) out of IUPUI. In seven games this season, Owusu-Ansah had one special teams tackle and averaged 21.7 yards on 25 kick returns, with a long of 41 yards. Owusu-Ansah suffered a high ankle sprain on October 31 and was inactive last week against Green Bay.

To replace Spears and Owusu-Ansah on the 53-man roster, free agent defensive linemen Jeremy Clark agreed to terms on Tuesday, and defensive lineman Jimmy Saddler-McQueen has been signed off the St. Louis Rams practice squad.