{"id":783825,"date":"2026-03-01T06:42:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:42:37","slug":"former-panthers-s-sam-franklin-jr-strikes-multi-year-deal-with-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783825\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Panthers S Sam Franklin Jr. strikes multi-year deal with Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 27, 2026, 8:05 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A familiar cat appears to be staying up north.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">According to ESPN senior reporter Jeremy Fowler, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/buffalo-bills\/324\" data-autotag=\"1082767b-7fb4-4f44-b217-cdba2c3895e9\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JFowlerESPN\/status\/2027363671190462604?s=20\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">re-signing<\/a> safety Sam Franklin Jr. to a three-year deal worth up to $7.5 million. Franklin played his first five NFL seasons with the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/carolina-panthers\/364\" data-autotag=\"8afac4d1-41b4-4302-b154-b45f5b48a0d2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>, a run that ended ahead of the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Franklin&#8217;s pro tenure began in 2020, when the Panthers signed the University of Temple product as an undrafted free agent. He&#8217;d reconnect with then-head coach Matt Rhule, who led the Owls in Franklin&#8217;s very first collegiate season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Over his stay in Carolina, Franklin recorded 105 combined tackles, a sack, an interception, a touchdown return and a forced fumble. The majority of his snaps (62.9 percent) came on special teams, where his play helped <a href=\"http:\/\/pantherswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/2024\/09\/04\/panthers-name-team-captains-2024-bryce-young\/75075494007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earn him a nod<\/a> as a team captain in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">He&#8217;d appear in all 19 games, including two playoff contests, for the Bills in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ThePanthersWire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 27, 2026, 8:05 a.m. ET A familiar cat appears to be staying up north. According to ESPN&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,97114,97115,95882,96033,96059,95892,95896,95888,95899,95906,110743,96177,95883,104748,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-783825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","16":"tag-sstsnpanthers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbuffalo-bills","19":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsam-franklin-jr","26":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtemple-university","29":"tag-tagtwitter","30":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116152562072601967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}