Franklin passed a physical and officially signed the deal before the 49ers played the Oakland Raiders in a preseason game Saturday night. Franklin planned to watch that game before rejoining his teammates for practice next week.
Franklin has a little more than two weeks to prepare for the Sept. 12 season opener against the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks. Franklin said he wants to play in next Thursday's preseason finale against the San Diego Chargers.
"I'm anxious to go out there, see what I did this offseason, see what's going to help me out on the field," he said. "I'm anxious to go back out there with the guys, build on what we started on last year. I think another year with all of us together we can do a whole lot better this year on the defensive side and as a team."
Franklin spent the offseason working with a personal trainer in Atlanta and believes he's in better shape than when he arrived at camp last year. He did workouts with his trainer, boxing for a minute and then taking 30 seconds off to replicate playing in a game.
"We just tried to make it mimic plays like an average game, maybe like 64 plays, so I tried to do the same things with boxing," he said.
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