If the Denver Broncos are going to take the next step as a team in 2025, they're going to need young players on the roster to step up and emerge as bigger contributors on the team than they were a year ago. Luckily for them, they had a draft class in 2024 that Sean Payton told owner and CEO Greg Penner would be a class they looked back on years from now as the group that helped turn things around.
While we all know that Bo Nix is part of that, what about the rest of the class? The Broncos might actually be sitting on a gold mine at a couple of different positions, but the primary focus for players from that 2024 class is going to be on wide receiver Troy Franklin.
Sean Payton noted after the draft that the Broncos actually had a second-round grade on Franklin, so they moved up to get him when he lasted all the way to the fourth round. His rookie year was a disappointment, but he showed up to OTAs and minicamp sporting a new jersey number (11) and looking both bigger and more explosive.
Troy Franklin is poised for a breakout season for Broncos in 2025
There are a lot of mouths to feed in Denver in the passing game all of a sudden. The team added tight end Evan Engram in NFL Free Agency. They used a third-round pick on wide receiver Pat Bryant. Marvin Mims has a more defined role. Fellow second-year player Devaughn Vele is going to be involved.
Not to mention the backs.
But Franklin is someone who has the size, speed, and abilities after the catch to be a consistent threat in the offense and a big-time breakout player candidate for the Broncos this season. Especially if he and Bo Nix can get that timing down on the deep ball like we saw from the two of them in the playoffs against the Buffalo Bills, we could very well see Franklin emerge as one of the top three or four players on the team in total targets.
Because of all the mouths to feed, it's probably important to temper expectations just a bit. What we really need to see from Franklin is better efficiency per target, not necessarily a 100-catch, 1,300-yard season with 12 touchdowns or something like that.
Although that would be nice.
Franklin had a catch percentage of 52.8 percent last season. That's got to climb. He averaged less than 10 yards per reception last year. That could nearly double. He had just 11 first downs on 28 total receptions. That rate has to be better. He had just 163 total yards of YAC (yards after the catch). I expect that number to skyrocket.
The involvement from Franklin in last year's offense was more of a "break in case of emergency" thing. Josh Reynolds went down with an injury, forcing Franklin into the lineup quicker than perhaps the Broncos had planned. And he predictably struggled a bit while also showing some flashes.
In year two, we could see the connection between Nix and Franklin revived to the level we saw from them back at Oregon.