When Zaire Franklin was with the Indianapolis Colts, he was an unquestioned leader on defense. After not starting for the first few years of his career, he became the green dot on defense and the vocal leader in the locker room. He was combustible at times, and that was one of the reasons he was traded to the Green Bay Packers this past offseason.
To be clear, the main reason he was dealt was that Franklin was atrocious in pass coverage and was beginning to whiff on more tackle attempts. In 2025, he missed tackles 15.5 percent of the time, a horrible number for a player tasked mostly with stopping the run. In 2024, he missed 12.2 percent of the time, a number that is still too high.
But he is no longer an Indy concern, of course. Instead, Packers fans will learn of Franklin's limitations once the regular season begins. One thing is for sure, however: Franklin will talk a great game, and he started doing so in Green Bay the day he was traded and hasn't stopped since.
Former Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin is back to his old tricks with the Green Bay Packers
This week, the linebacker wanted to let his new teammates know that his feistiness in practice wasn't anything out of a personal grudge. He just practiced hard and needed the intensity.
According to The Athletic's Matt Schneidman, Franklin said, "When I’m on the field, I’m a completely different person. My mentality between the white lines is ultra competitor, ultimate alpha. I wanna challenge the best, the biggest. I don't want no little guy. I wanna go against the baddest (expletive) out there. That's how I feel. I feel like I'm the baddest (expletive) on the planet when I'm on the field. That's just my mentality."
That's great, of course. An inside linebacker who hopes to be a team leader in football needs to be somewhat bombastic. As long as that vitriol isn't used to cover up poor performance on the field, and that is where Packers fans need to be most concerned.
Zaire Franklin doesn't miss games, so that's a positive. He has missed only one in his career. He also accumulates tackles, though any inside linebacker who plays a lot should do that. Defenses are designed to funnel ball-carriers to linebackers to force them to the ground.
In 2024, Franklin also forced five fumbles and was named Second-Team All-Pro. But even then, he left a huge hole in the middle of the defense in terms of pass coverage.
In two of the last three seasons, Franklin's passer rating allowed was at least 103.4, and it was 111.5 in 2025. In the last three years combined, he has given up six touchdown passes and picked off two passes. He has allowed a terrible 635 yards receiving or more in two of the last three seasons.
This won't change for the Green Bay Packers. Franklin's problem with the Indianapolis Colts wasn't scheme but coverage ability. Franklin doesn't have that, and he will hurt his new team's defense because of that.
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