Troy Franklin’s 2025 season looked like the kind of step forward that should stabilize a young receiver’s place in a rotation. Instead, it may have made the next question harder: is improvement enough in a Denver offense that keeps adding more mouths to feed?
That is the tension surrounding Franklin entering the 2026 regular season. He was a 2024 fourth-round pick, and in 2025 he finished with 65 receptions for 709 yards and six touchdowns after opening his career with 28 receptions, 263 yards and one score. Those numbers represent real growth. They also do not guarantee a featured role when the receiver room now includes Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr.
A crowded room has changed the conversation
Lou Scataglia wrote on September 8, 2026 that Franklin had fallen out of favor and could be at best the fifth option in the Broncos receiver room. That is a sharp turn from the way a second-year breakout is usually supposed to work. The assumption is often that production buys trust. In Denver, the more relevant question may be fit, ceiling and how many snaps are left after the top options are sorted out.
Scataglia’s case was straightforward: Franklin does have the Oregon connection with Bo Nix, but the Broncos added Waddle for a reason and also saw Pat Bryant have himself an offseason. He argued that it is not unrealistic to view Franklin as the fifth option behind Sutton, Waddle, Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr. He also pointed to a bigger concern, saying Franklin appears to be trending in the wrong direction, does not necessarily excel at anything and was not a consistent separator last year either.
That kind of criticism matters because it goes beyond raw totals. Franklin’s 2025 production was a clear improvement, but his usage declined late in the year, he missed the Patriots game with a hamstring injury, and his final four games produced just four receptions for 17 yards. That is the kind of finish that can linger in a coach’s mind when roles are being reassigned before a new season.
The numbers improved, but the role did not necessarily follow
There is still a case to be made that Franklin’s growth was meaningful. Going from 28 catches and one touchdown as a rookie to 65 catches and six touchdowns in his second season is not nothing. He turned himself into a more productive NFL receiver, and that should not be dismissed just because the room got deeper around him.
But the Broncos are not asking who improved most in a vacuum. They are deciding who can be trusted to matter on Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs and over the full season that follows. Sean Payton’s reaction to receiver problems after the AFC Championship Game loss, including the firing of Joe Lombardi and Keary Colbert, already signaled that Denver wanted to reset the room rather than simply reward incumbency.
Franklin has also been open about his own expectations. On Thursday, he told The Denver Post he was going to get a 1,000-yard season, double his touchdowns and aim for about 80 or 100 receptions. That is an ambitious goal, and it sounds like the mindset of a player who still believes the next jump is coming.
The problem is that confidence and opportunity are not the same thing. Franklin can want a 1,000-yard season and still enter the year as a peripheral piece if Denver decides Sutton, Waddle, Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr. are ahead of him. In that sense, the question is not whether Franklin has gotten better. It is whether he has gotten better fast enough, or in the right way, to force his way back into a central role.
That is what makes this evaluation interesting. Franklin is no longer a rookie prospect. He is no longer being judged only on potential. He is being measured against a depth chart that has become more competitive, and against a standard that now asks whether his 2025 gains were the start of something bigger or simply the high point before a harder fight for snaps.
