The Cowboys have recently signed veteran safety Eric Frampton, who played five years with the Vikings and was with the team this past training camp and preseason. I went back and watched a few of his games in the preseason and last year.
The first thing you notice about him, he plays on the majority of all special teams units. He's a center on the kickoff return – that's a front-line guy closest to the ball. it's an important position because that's the guy that sets the front line. You have to have a guy with responsibility and awareness there.
I think he does a good job of staying in his position. He's not one of these trained-killer-blocker guys. He's a get in the way guy who steers you away from the ball. He won't flatten you, but does a nice job of dropping, getting in position and walling his guy off.
He plays on the kickoff team as the L3, that's three spots from the sideline. That guy has to take on the wedge a lot of the time. Last year, he had a really nice game against New Orleans getting off blocks and making tackles. He was good at doing that. Fighting through guys and making plays.
He can also be the "Vice" guy on punt return and knows how to stay with his guy and block. He's also the personal protector on the punt team. So you can see his versatility on all the special teams.
As a player, I went back and watched Frampton on film in the preseason games this year. He's got a quick-pedal, he can read and react. Drives on the ball, nice break and good open-field tackler. He mainly covers the tight end and he was good down in the box. He's more of a forward-player than back, but you can see things where he can react and go, and not a lot of wasted motion.
There are some positive things. He's more than just a special teams guy. You can use him having to play on the regular defense. Every snap? Probably not, but he could get some opportunities.
The question now is why is this guy available. The word is, Minnesota kept Andrew Sendejo, who is younger and cheaper. It sounds like an economical move. But I think Frampton is a good player who can maybe take some pressure off of Danny McCray and some of the things he's doing on defense and special teams.
