In his first season with the Green Bay Packers, Zaire Franklin is not wasting any time endearing himself to fans by talking some trash to the Chicago Bears following the Week 5 game on Sunday.
The Packers walked out of Lambeau Field with the bragging rights, and then some, after Green Bay trounced Chicago, 31-7, in a game that was never really close.
After the game was over, Franklin went off on Bears wide receiver Luther Burden and claimed that the second-year wideout quit during the game.
“He quit today. He didn’t wanna play no more," Franklin said, per The Athletic's Matt Schneidman.
Schneidman also noted that Franklin said Burden "has never done anything in the league."
Franklin's trash talk comes on the heels of Burden saying before the game that the Bears wanted to make the Packers quit.
"I feel like (Ben Johnson) wants to beat them really bad, like everybody else in the room, every Chicago fan," Burden said. "We just want to beat them real bad and make them quit."
Yeah, that didn't happen on Sunday. Instead, Bears fans wanted to quit by turning the game off. It was that ugly.
More Packers trash talk
Franklin then went off about the Bears dissing the Packers in recent years.
“They do a whole lot of weird stuff. Since I been here, they do a whole lot of stuff that they worried about us. We worried about ourselves. Hopefully they learn to stop dissing us. Real talk," Franklin said.
Packers wide receiver Christian Watson was a bit more diplomatic, but he took a shot at Burden over his comment, also.
“We definitely flipped that on their head," Watson said.
Burden didn't have a great game, but he was the Bears' leading receiver, although it was a low bar. Burden had a team-high 47 yards on four catches and he took four carries for two yards.
An ugly loss to the Packers
The Bears never led in the game. The Packers scored 14 points before the Bears got on the board with their first and only touchdown in the second quarter.
Green Bay did whatever it wanted to Chicago's secondary during the game, including connecting on a handful of plays that totaled 36 yards or more, and two of those bombs went for touchdowns to Christian Watson.
On offense, the Bears got putrid play from quarterback Tyson Bagent, who tossed two bad interceptions and just looked off overall before he was benched in the fourth quarter for Case Keenum.
Keenum didn't do any better, with the 38-year-old tossing his own interception and losing a fumble. It's hard to get too mad at him, though, as Keenum came into an impossible situation.
If Caleb Williams doesn't play again, it's pretty clear that Chicago needs to start Keenum next week.
However, there was a few pieces of good news on the Williams return front on Sunday, as NFL Network's Mike Garafolo said Williams is "pushing to play" in Week 6.
Adding to that, Williams was doing some work on the field prior to kickoff and he looked to be moving very well. Hopefully there will be no decision to make and Williams will be back next Sunday.
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