ORCHARD PARK — At this time last year, Sam Franklin Jr. wasn’t supposed to be here. Buffalo wasn’t part of the plan.
Franklin signed a one-year deal with the Denver Broncos April 8 after spending his first five NFL seasons with the Carolina Panthers. And then he was released during final cuts. An undrafted free agent from Temple, it was the first time Franklin had been cut during his career.
Simultaneously, Franklin and his wife weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on how to care for their newborn son. He was born with jaundice, a condition that turns skin and the whites of the eyes yellow due to elevated levels of bilirubin. The couple had to keep him under a blue light or direct sunlight for five months until it disappeared.
Franklin signed to the Buffalo Bills practice squad a day after being released, reuniting with former Panthers special teams coordinator Chris Tabor. Three days before the season opener, Franklin was signed to the active roster.
A safety by trade, but Franklin’s real job is to play special teams — all of them. And it didn’t take long for Franklin to carve his role for the Bills, appearing in every game.
Tabor wasn’t retained after former coach Sean McDermott was fired, but the Bills still awarded Franklin a three-year, $7 million extension. And most recently, Franklin’s teammates made him one of two special teams captains and six overall.
“I voted for (long snapper) Reid Ferguson,” Franklin deadpanned. “I thought he was going to win. I wasn’t really worried about it.”
Franklin also doesn’t have to worry about many of the concerns he had when he arrived in Buffalo. His family is happy and healthy, and they are stable.
His contract extension is the first multi-year contract he’s signed since his rookie deal in 2020. Franklin operated on one-year deals during his last two seasons in Carolina and again last year. But that contract — and the $4.2 million guaranteed — essentially made Franklin a lock for the 53-man roster this year.
“I feel like last year was the most consistent thing that I had last year in my life,” Franklin said. “This year, that’s what I just plan on doing. Being consistent with the guys around me, making sure that I show up the same every day and every week for practice and games.”
Getting cut and relocating to a new city might have been tough, but nothing like the route Franklin took to get to the NFL. Franklin received a scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, but didn’t qualify academically.
That meant he needed a year of prep school. It also meant raising $7,000 to pay for it.
Franklin worked as a roofer, while also working at Outback Steakhouse and Applebee’s for a month and a half after high school.
His father used food stamps to purchase $300 worth of meat for Franklin to barbecue and sell plates. Franklin had some other odd jobs, but eventually reached his breaking point. He was $2,000 short and called his mother with tears rolling down his cheeks, ready to give up and just get a job without football.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Franklin said. “… And I remember just crying to her. She was like, ‘Nah, you really want to do this. You’re just going to have to get through it.’ and that really molded a big part of me. … After I got to college, no matter what was going to happen, I was just going to give everything I had and leave it up to God.”
Franklin ultimately completed six classes in three months at East Coast Prep in Massachusetts, earning a scholarship to Temple. But after arriving, he was still two classes short. He returned to prep school and took the SATs, allowing him to qualify.
It led him to a unique NFL career, with nine career starts at safety, all with the Panthers. He has one career sack, and it came as a rookie against Patrick Mahomes. Franklin also has one career interception, returning it 99 yards for a touchdown in 2023.
But when Franklin was signed by the Panthers coming out of the draft, he quickly realized what his role was going to be. A linebacker at Temple, Franklin had to move to safety at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds.
But his length and agility allow him to move around as a special teamer. His size allows him to play inline on the punt team, but his length and stride allow him to play as a gunner also.
Franklin is a core-four player, being a member of the punt and punt return teams and kickoff and kick return teams. That’s the role he accepted to establish a career in the NFL.
He only played six defensive snaps last season, all of them in the regular-season finale. Franklin played 75.8% of the special teams snaps — he’s not on the field goal or field goal block team — according to Pro Football Reference, making 13 tackles.
“I called him on the way home and the same day he’s being named a captain, and a year ago he was just meeting his teammates,” Bills coach Joe Brady said. “And that kind of speaks to the volume of who he is, how he plays, to go from that in one year.”
While some players itch for more than special teams, there are plenty of players like Franklin who make careers of it and take pride in it. And it’s hard to tell if he’s having a bad day. Franklin is constantly chirping — jokingly to teammates and words not suitable for children to opponents.
“I’m a big hater and I don’t like the other team doing anything good,” Franklin said. “If it takes me making sure they don’t get no good punt returns, then that’s what I’ll do. And then on kickoff, it’s a fight. I feel like I can get the guys going to where everybody wants to hunt. … Our job is to make sure Josh (Allen) gets the ball and that we create conflict for the defense.”
NOTES: DL T.J. Sanders (knee) did not practice Thursday after being limited Wednesday. … DB Jordan Hancock (quad) returned to practice in a limited capacity. … RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) did not practice.