GREEN BAY, Wis. — Another devastating hand has been dealt to the Green Bay Packers in the injury department ahead of Sunday’s divisional game in Detroit.
They’ll be down both of their starting linebackers against Jahmyr Gibbs and an explosive Lions offense. Edgerrin Cooper is already out for the season following an Oct. 4 Achilles tear, but they’ll be without Zaire Franklin this week, too. He popped up on Thursday’s practice report with a shin injury, which is severe enough to force the ironman linebacker to miss just the second game of his nine-year career.
“Unfortunately, there was a little collision [in practice], and he got kneed in the shin,” said head coach Matt LaFleur on Friday. “He’s going to be out for this game.”
LaFleur doesn’t anticipate it being a long-term injury that would land Franklin on injured reserve, but that’s still to be determined. At the very least, the Packers will have to navigate treacherous waters this week and re-evaluate Franklin once they’re back in Green Bay on Monday. They’ll lean heavily on Ty’Ron Hopper, a 2024 third-round pick, and Isaiah McDuffie, a 2021 sixth-round pick, to lead their linebacking corps against the Lions.
“We’re working through it right now,” LaFleur said. “I don’t think it’s going to be anything too long-term, but it’s just an unfortunate deal. That happens when you play football, especially with the way your guys have been practicing.
“But I think we have a lot of confidence in [Isaiah] McDuffie, [Ty’Ron] Hopper, and [Nick] Niemann, if need be, to go in there and do a good job for us.”
Along with McDuffie, Hopper, and Niemann, Kristian Welch—exclusively a contributor on special teams—is the only other linebacker on the 53-man roster. Jack Dingle, who was signed to the practice squad on Oct. 8, could be elevated this weekend.
The loss of Franklin could be crippling to the Packers’ defense on a normal occasion, let alone against someone as dynamic as Gibbs, who has nine touchdowns from scrimmage in the Lions’ five games this season. After being acquired in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts for Colby Wooden this past offseason, Franklin has stepped in and immediately cemented himself as a member of the Packers’ leadership council.
With a gold ‘C’ on his upper-right chest plate, Franklin has accumulated 41 tackles this season, No. 2 on the team behind Evan Williams. He’s registered two tackles for a loss—one of which came on a critical third-down stop in the Oct. 11 win over the Chicago Bears. Franklin has epitomized what it means to be durable and reliable, playing in 138 of a possible 139 games across his career at one of the most physically demanding positions in the sport; Sunday will end his streak of 48 consecutive starts.
After waiting until the seventh round—No. 235 overall, 21 selections away from going undrafted—to hear his name called in the 2018 NFL Draft, Franklin spent the first three years of his career as a backup and special teams contributor in Indianapolis. He started just four games on defense in that span, but the Colts had seen enough from him—both on the field and off of it—to name him as a team captain ahead of the 2020 campaign.
Franklin was a team captain at all three levels of his playing career—at La Salle College High School, Syracuse, and both of his NFL stops. Franklin brought 738 career tackles—644 of which have come since 2022—to Green Bay to account for the team’s decision to move on from Quay Walker. Walker, a former first-round pick, entered unrestricted free agency this past spring, prompting the Packers to turn to Franklin as a contingency plan.
Zachary Jacobson is the author of The Packer Dispatch. He is entering his 12th season covering the Green Bay Packers after spending seven as the Editor-in-Chief of Packer Report. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter @zachjacobson or contact him via email at itszachariahj@gmail.com.