If anyone from the Green Bay Packers was going to respond to what the Chicago Bears said before their Week 5 matchup, it wasn’t going to be head coach Matt LaFleur or quarterback Jordan Love, who tend to be very measured in their words. Instead, linebacker Zaire Franklin took that role after Green Bay’s dominant 31-7 win over Chicago.

Franklin joined the Packers via trade in the offseason. He was already the one who expressed exactly what Packers fans were feeling after the blowout, because he directly answered what the Bears were saying ahead of the game, both from Bears head coach Ben Johnson and, especially, from wide receiver Luther Burden.

Before the matchup, Burden made it clear how the Bears viewed the Packers game.

“[Ben Johnson] wants to beat them really bad, like everyone else in the room, like every Chicago fan,” Burden said. “Beat them real bad and make them quit.”

Zaire Franklin turns Luther Burden’s words around

Things didn’t go according to Burden’s plan. Instead, the Packers were the ones who dominantly beat the Bears, and Franklin didn’t hold back when asked about Chicago’s behavior leading up to the game. His response to Burden was short and direct.

“He quit today, by the way,” Franklin said. “He ain’t wanna play anymore. But we focused on ourselves, man. We ain’t really worried about that.”

Burden wasn’t Franklin’s only target, though. The linebacker also took aim at the entire Bears organization and the way it approaches this rivalry compared to Green Bay.

“They do a whole lot of weird stuff,” Franklin added. “Since I’ve been here, they do a whole lot of stuff that they worry about us. We are worried about ourselves. Hopefully they learn to stop dissing us. Real talk.”

Two very different approaches

Franklin’s comments are a good summary of how the rivalry has worked in recent years. For the most part, the Bears have talked a lot about the Packers. Green Bay, on the other hand, hasn’t taken that approach under LaFleur.

The Packers have stayed focused on themselves throughout LaFleur’s tenure. That was true when they dominated the series years ago, including a stretch of 11 consecutive wins over Chicago. It also remained true after the dynamic shifted last season, when the Bears won the second regular season game and then beat the Packers in the playoffs.

Now Green Bay has won again, and the approach hasn’t changed. The Packers understand this is a rivalry game and an important NFC North matchup with real implications for the season. At the same time, they don’t want to overload themselves by thinking too much about the Bears. The focus stays on what the game means for Green Bay.

Johnson has taken a completely different path in Chicago. The Bears head coach wants to beat the Packers specifically, and he talks about them often. The contrast between the two sidelines has become one of the defining features of the rivalry, but locker room speeches after losses don’t go viral on social media.

An outside perspective on the rivalry

Franklin brings a unique view to this situation. He spent several years with the Indianapolis Colts before the trade, so he experienced the NFL far away from the NFC North. Now that he’s inside the division, he can look at the rivalry with a fresh set of eyes. From that perspective, he has seen what he described as weird behavior from the Bears.

Whether Chicago adjusts its tone remains to be seen. For now, the Packers got the result on the field, and Franklin made sure the Bears heard about it afterward.