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 purpose without explanation. Like the example he provided leading up to the 2018 game against the Patriots, Franklin says Eberflus would leave in the dark. In some instances, according to Franklin, Eberflus would get frustrated if he asked questions in meetings.
But it was the unfair treatment Eberflus specified to him that truly upset him.
“I told him, I said ‘When I lost, I lost.’ I done lost before, bro. My issue came when I won,” Franklin said. “When I won, you ain’t give me my victory. You always stepped on it. You always did something slick. You always went out of your way to make sure I didn’t shine the way that I knew I could because you knew who I was. That’s where my issue came. Me and him, one on one, I told him that.”
Franklin is referencing the times when he knew he beat out other guys on the roster and in the linebacker room. Eberflus would never give him his flowers. Franklin wouldn’t get the time on the field he deserved.
In 2022, Eberflus was set to move on from being the Colts’ defensive coordinator. Similarly, Franklin was about to enter unrestricted free agency. They knew they were going down different paths. That’s when Franklin tried to clear the air with him about their time together.
According to Franklin, Eberflus made excuses, saying — for example — he didn’t control substitutions.
“So you can’t talk to me as a man right now? We’re men. You got a family, bro,” Franklin said. “It’s not even that deep. I ain’t got no ill will. I’m not gonna rumble you. You know me better than that. Let’s just have a conversation about what was really going on. Because at this point, we don’t owe each other nothing other than the truth, at least I thought.”
Who’s to say what truly transpired between Franklin and Eberflus, or how Eberflus coached while in Indianapolis? But Franklin’s stories don’t bode well for Eberflus, who’s now in a more prominent role with the Bears.
Everyone with the Bears has steadily praised the culture since Eberflus’ arrival. But Franklin would have something else to say on the subject.
“I really didn’t understand how really pissed off I was about that s—,” Franklin said. “Every single time. Every single chance he got, bro, he pushed me back to the bottom, bro. Every time I was climbing up (he) would pull the ladder, bro. Every time I had a rope he’d cut the line. I had to start all over.”
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