Zaire Franklin and Javon Hargrave both arrived in Green Bay this year, and the Packers linebacker said Wednesday that losing the veteran defensive tackle to a torn Achilles hit him personally. “Football is a 100% injury sport. We all gonna go through some type of adversity at some point,” Franklin said. “It hurt to see him go down like that, man.”
“One of my guys in the locker room”
Franklin said the bond with Hargrave started before they were teammates. “We came in together, we got the same agent, and it was a mutual respect from afar,” he said. He said Green Bay was the first place they actually met, and that Hargrave quickly became “one of my guys in the locker room. He sat through a couple of me and Tucker’s breakfast arguments.”
“He’s a real dog, and he’s obviously going to battle through that and be the best that he can be,” Franklin said.
Hargrave, 33, went down without contact in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 31-7 win over the Chicago Bears while chasing quarterback Case Keenum, and tests on Monday confirmed the tear. He signed a two-year deal with the Packers in free agency after the Minnesota Vikings released him, and Sunday was only his fourth game of the season after earlier knee and concussion problems. Franklin came over from the Indianapolis Colts in a March trade for defensive tackle Colby Wooden after leading the NFL with 173 tackles in 2024.
A defense that keeps losing pieces
It is the second Achilles tear in two weeks for the Green Bay defense. Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper suffered the same injury a week earlier at Tampa Bay, which has pushed Ty’Ron Hopper into a bigger role next to Franklin. Hargrave had not yet been moved to injured reserve on Wednesday, so he was still listed as a non-participant, and the interior line behind him is thin: Jonathan Ford (calf) did not practice, while Devonte Wyatt (ankle), Anthony Campbell (ankle) and Jordon Riley, who is back in his practice window after his own Achilles tear last year, were limited.
Franklin has been the steadying piece in that group. He had nine tackles, a forced fumble and a pass breakup against Chicago, and Matt LaFleur said this week, “I love his mentality. He loves to come in and put the work in, and he demands a lot of himself.”
Sunday night at Lambeau, and a night at the ballpark
The 3-2 Packers host the 2-3 Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football on October 18 at 8:20 p.m. EDT, and Franklin sounded ready for it. “Waiting all day for Sunday night. Obviously what Dallas brings, it’s going to be a great matchup,” he said. “I enjoy every time I get a chance to play in Lambeau. I already know Sunday night is going to be another movie.”
Before that, he spent part of his week at Game 2 of the NLCS at American Family Field in Milwaukee. “I’m a huge baseball fan,” Franklin said. “It was just fun being able to go, especially off the win. Obviously, pulling up off the loss would have been terrible.” He called it his first time in the park, said the fans were “super intense” and gave the Brewers a shoutout for their hospitality.
Asked for his favorite player of all time, the Philadelphia native went with Ryan Howard, noting that he played first base himself, and named the old-school Phillies of Jim Thome, Bobby Abreu and Jimmy Rollins as the teams that made him love the game.
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