One of the best ever regardless...
He is currently 7th all time for goals kicked with the players ahead of time all coming from eras were individual goalkicking tallies were MUCH higher across the board. Franklin will likely kick 1000 goals! when the absolute best of his contempories (Kennedy, Fevola, etc) will all end up a shade over 600. 300-400 more goals than the next best is a MASSIVE gap.
On top of that, he gets a lot of all the ball for a key forward, lays plenty of tackles for a key forward, is a great distributor and can do things only a couple of players ever can do.
He is an 8 x All Australian (equal #1 all time, most of any key forward) and 4 time Coleman Medallist (despite missing chunks of games most seasons and playing at CHF for plenty).
Is without doubt in the top 20 players of all time (and has a good case for top 10 IMO).
Not disparaging Buddy but his nearest contemporary would be Jack Riewoldt. Already over 600 goals, if he can stay fit I reckon he could play a few more years after Buddy retires (he is two years younger) and maybe end up between 750 and 800 goals and possibly a fourth Coleman Medal too. A lot depends on how his role changes/evolves with Lynch in the side.