Special teamers are football players too! And in Sam Franklin Jr.'s case, he's a damn good one.
Franklin only appeared in 88 defensive snaps a season ago but made his mark on special teams. He collected 20 tackles and one forced fumble on the year, quickly earning the respect of veteran punter Johnny Hekker.
"The guy, he's incredible. He makes plays. He gets doubled. He draws penalties in the doubles and still beats them and gets up and makes plays," Hekker told All Panthers. "It's really stuff that you've seen when you watch Matthew Slater tape and Matthew Slater has been to Pro Bowl after Pro Bowl. Sam is kind of carrying that badge of honor for us and he's working his tail off for every bit of success he's gotten. I'm just proud of him and the mantle that he's taken on himself to be a special teams leader for us and he's producing at a really high level."
NFL Network's Brian Baldinger went through some of his tape on Twitter and offered some high praise.
"He's the best special team player in the NFL. He's fun to watch. No one guy can block him...Week in, week out, Sam Franklin is the best special team player in the NFL."
The second clip in the video above is the one that shows how dominate Franklin is. He draws the holding penalty despite being double-teamed, gets thrown down out of bounds, gets back up and sprints downfield to make the tackle. It's unbelievable stuff.
What Franklin does may not get the attention of fans across the league but if you watch the Panthers on a weekly basis, you know just how important he is.
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