On Thursday, the Houston Roughnecks finally made a couple more moves. DE T.J. Franklin and S Jack Koerner signed to the team, bolstering a roster looking to make major changes ahead of the 2025 UFL season.
The Houston Roughnecks are signing DE TJ Franklin and S Jack Koerner, per source
— UFL Analyst – Michael Del Negro (@uflanalyst) December 12, 2024
DE T.J. Franklin
Franklin is an important addition to this edge unit, one that is going to see some turnover in 2025. Chris Odom has yet to re-sign, and Ronheen Bingham and Adam Rodriguez were both released.
T.J. Franklin played his college football at Baylor. He saw quite a bit of success there, with 125 tackles and 10.5 sacks to his name. Franklin was a starter at Baylor during his final couple of seasons, seeing plenty of growth as a pass rusher with several QB hurries in his final campaign.
More CHAOS and HAVOC from the Bears defense. TJ Franklin with a nice sack.
— BearsIllustrated (@BaylorBears247) September 9, 2023
T.J.’s success led to an NFL opportunity with the Las Vegas Raiders. T.J. was active in a few preseason games for the Raiders, but didn’t notch any statistics.
Now, he’ll look to get his pro career off the ground in the UFL, with the Houston Roughnecks. Franklin is a young prospect with plenty of upside, and is the exact type of player that GM Will Lewis needs to target more often.
S Jack Koerner
Jack Koerner is back in the spring scene. It’s no surprise to see him reunite with Will Lewis, who was his GM in the XFL with the San Antonio Brahmas.
Jack played all of his college football at Iowa, and was a standout there with 216 tackles and six interceptions across a few seasons. Koerner was just another product of the Iowa system – one that produces quite a few solid defensive backs.
See also
Koerner earned an NFL opportunity with the New Orleans Saints in 2022, but he was released at the end of that preseason. This led to Jack taking his talents to the…