Colts linebacker airs grievances about Matt Eberflus from time in Indianapolis

Colts linebacker airs grievances about Matt Eberflus from time in Indianapolis originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin recently aired his grievances about his former defensive coordinator and current Bears head coach, Matt Eberflus, from their time together from 2018-21.

In one instance, on Franklin’s podcast, “The Trenches Podcast,” he claimed Eberflus didn’t tell him he would be playing in a Thursday night game in 2018, as a rookie, until 30 minutes before the game. He also claims he didn’t let him play as a Mike linebacker for a month and hadn’t gone through a walk-through rep before the game. Also, at this time, Darius Leonard was injured, begging the question of why Franklin hadn’t earned the right to further preparation.

Subsequently, Franklin says Tom Brady and the Patriots tore up the Colts, 38-24. As you can imagine, meetings with the linebackers the following week did not go well for Franklin.

“We in the meeting he told the whole team I wasn’t s—, I wasn’t prepared,” Franklin said. “The thing is I would say me and Flus relationship — if I’m really keeping it 100 — it grew as we really started to understand each other and work with each other for a number of years.

“… Understanding that that was his first time as a coordinator in my rookie year. He was a linebacker coach before then. He was still out of line as a linebacker coach trying to run the whole defense through the linebackers. Understanding some of the things that he did back then, different little s— he did that may have hurt our relationship, I give you the benefit of the doubt for learning that s— as we were going, the same as I was (as a rookie).”

Franklin appeared to receive the short end of the stick with Eberflus, as his stories would suggest. The Colts drafted him in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Syracuse. It’s possible Eberflus gave him a hard time for being low on the totem pole.

He claims Eberflus kept information from him on…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/colts-linebacker-airs-grievances-matt-014838276.html

Author : NBC Sports Chicago

Publish date : 2024-09-28 01:48:38

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