Dallas Cowboys: Why Kavon Frazier could be a starting safety

With Byron Jones moving to cornerback, safety becomes a question mark on this Dallas Cowboys team. We best not sleep on third-year pro, Kavon Frazier.

When the Dallas Cowboys moved Byron Jones to cornerback, a starting spot at safety opened up. And if we’re being honest, that second safety spot isn’t all that stable either. With the entire unit in flux, it’s no wonder offseason discussion has revolved around former All-Pro, Earl Thomas.

As we stand now, the Dallas Cowboys have three viable candidates on the roster capable of winning a safety job: Jeff Heath, Xavier Woods, and Kavon Frazier. Considering the Cowboys regularly field three safeties at a time and rotate them even when fielding the standard two, depth is pretty important for this position group.

Most of the talk to date has revolved around Xavier Woods improving, Jeff Heath maintaining, and Earl Thomas joining. But everyone seems to be overlooking our man Kavon.

If you can think way back to the 2015 NFL Draft, you’ll remember the Dallas Cowboys drafted this hard-hitting safety out of Minnesota to be the eventual heir to Barry Church. Church, in the last year of his deal, was expected to fetch a tidy sum on the free agent market, and Dallas didn’t want to get stuck without an in-the-box safety on the roster.

So Kavon Frazier joined the Cowboys determined to prove he’s the starter-to-be. Frazier flashed enough, that when Church eventually left in free agency, the Cowboys felt ok with their developmental prospects.

I mean, in Kavon Frazier’s NFL.com draft profile, Lance Zierlein literally listed Barry Church as Kavon Frazier’s best NFL comparison. That’s why it was a little shocking to see him so quickly disregarded in many Dallas sports circles.

At 6’0” 220lbs, Frazier is the stoutest of the Dallas Cowboys’ stable of safeties, making him an ideal fit inside the box. Jeff Heath is solid, but has maxed out his potential in the run-stopping portion of his game. Xavier Woods is still developing, but he’s far too slender to be a major factor inside in run-support. And if Earl Thomas eventually joins the Dallas Cowboys, he’s better used deep as a hawking free safety.

No matter how you slice it, it’s in the Dallas Cowboys best interest to see Kavon Frazier succeed as an in-the-box SS.

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As mentioned earlier, the Cowboys rotate their safeties often, using different players in different roles. While Xavier Woods specialized in man coverage near the line of scrimmage last season, the Cowboys intend to use him more as a deep safety in 2018 (assuming Earl Thomas isn’t here). Jeff Heath often played deep last season, but he’s as well-rounded as the club has and can be moved around everywhere throughout the course of a game.

Kavon fits best as the run-support “thumper”. There may only be traditionally two safeties on the field at a given time, but Dallas uses three safeties as starters when you look at how they distribute the workload.

At only 23-years old, Kavon is still an ascending talent. This means even though he was drafted to be the in-the-box heir to Barry Church, he could very easily develop into a more well-rounded safety option. At the very least we need to re-insert Kavon Frazier into the starting safety discussion because he has both the ability to produce AND a unique set of skills to thrive on this Dallas Cowboys defense.

Next: Why an Earl Thomas trade is closer than you think

The Dallas Cowboys are looking for starting safeties and an ideal candidate may be sitting right underneath their noses. Don’t sleep on Kavon Frazier because he’s perfect for this.