When the Broncos were looking to make a needed addition to their defensive front before the 2024 season, the team was able to bring in John Franklin-Myers from the Jets for just a sixth-round pick. In his first year in Denver, JFM smashed several career highs and immediately became the running mate for Zach Allen.
Franklin-Myers is in his final year of his current contract, and seemed to position himself well entering his walk year. His 7.5 sacks in 2024 were a career high, his 40 total tackles were a career high, as were his eight tackles behind the line. By most all accounts, JFM was either going to be a must-watch walk year candidate or get paid by George Paton.
Franklin-Myers' walk year, however, hasn't started exactly as he had hoped. He has appeared in both Broncos games so far, but has been a ghost on the defensive front. His ineffectiveness has been a major surprise to most Broncos fans, and he needs to be corrected soon or his season could end up being sub-optimal for a walk year.
It is not yet time to panic about John Franklin-Myers' quiet start to the 2025 season
To date, all that is in the box score for John Franklin-Myers is one tackle assist. It feels incredibly light through two games, but it shouldn't be a cause for panic just yet. Considering some of the circumstances around him, his lack of boxscore production so far isn't too worrisome.
For starters, the Broncos are missing one of their most important defensive lineman in Malcolm Roach, and his absence has been felt. In his absence, JFM's snap count has increased from 46% to 61%, which could suggest overexposure. One of the major reasons for the Broncos' defensive success in 2024 was their ability to rotate defensive linemen in and out last year. With Roach out and the Broncos increasing the snap counts of other rotational linemen, it could lead to players like JFM being overexposed.
Further on this idea, the Broncos' run defense as a whole has struggled so far. Between Jonathan Taylor running all over them in Week 2 and Tony Pollard turning in a solid game in Week 1, the running defense across the board has been suspect. As the defensive unit settles in more, expect the performance to move back to the mean from 2024. If Franklin-Myers and the Broncos defense can force the Chargers into another poor rushing performance, expect some of the stats for JFM in the boxscore to look much better.