Thanks Andy, that was helpful, although not the good news I was hoping for. It seems like they are trying to raise the floor of the LB room now that they know Quay Walker will not be back. Maybe the hope is that Franklin will be about as good as Walker, or almost as good, at a lower price. It's yet another vote of no confidence in Ty'Ron Hopper--a player who the team has never seemed impressed with at all. The Hopper pick in the 3rd round has never stopped looking weird. Franklin will be better than Isaiah McDuffie in pass coverage, but he's still not particularly good in that area, and not as good of a tackler. Let's hope Gute has a hunch about this guy that proves to be correct.

Love this deal Z Franklin is explosive covers better than Quay ... plays like Parsons ( Book It )

I remember Gute being questioned about choosing Ty'Ronn Hopper in the third round (when no one else thought he was third round caliber):

"Gutekunst highlighted that while Hopper ran a 4.68-second 40-yard dash at the combine, the team "clocked him in the high 4.5s" at his pro day. "He runs fast on tape, he ran fast for us on the watch, so it all came together," Gutekunst said, calling him an "explosive athlete".

"I think all our linebackers are going to be interchangeable".

"Gutekunst valued Hopper's experience in the SEC (Florida and Missouri), noting that the coaching at Missouri provided confidence in his ability to transition to the NFL"

I don't know Mr Franklin, so i went to my 'go to' concerning unknowns.

It seems PFF gave him a grade of 38.5 last season.
87th of 88 LB's.

So, i have no clue what to say about this other than, maybe PFF is missing something, i don't know.
His claim to fame apparently is he led the NFL in tackles a couple years ago.

I better go look at his contract i guess, i'll assume he isn't getting Gary money.
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The bad news good news.....
Franklin had a coverage grade of 29.9 last season.

The good news (i guess) is Walker wasn't much better with a passer rating allowed of 120.8.

Time will tell