You always hope that competition can bring out the best in players when it comes to an NFL training camp, and that appears to be happening for the Denver Broncos at the wide receiver position. The Broncos have gotten one great update after another all offseason when it comes to the wide receiver position with just about everyone in their top five players at the position generating headlines of some sort.
At the start of training camp, it's obviously still extremely early, but second-year player Troy Franklin appears to be building on a very solid offseason program and getting training camp started the right way. Franklin made a handful of plays at Friday's training camp practice for the Broncos, including catching a deep ball from Jarrett Stidham for 50-plus yards.
WR Troy Franklin had an exceptional first day of camp.
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) July 25, 2025
Sean Payton: It’s just a little early to make a headline, ‘Troy Franklin steps up.’”
Yes, but Franklin looked good Friday.
Payton: “Yeah, he had a good day.”” https://t.co/FeKvsVwIw7
As good as Franklin has been this offseason, it's important to keep things in perspective with how early in the offseason we still are. The team hasn't put pads on since they lost to the Bills in the playoffs back in January. It's also important to remember that Franklin is not alone when it comes to his strong offseason at the wide receiver position.
Rookie Pat Bryant is making it virtually impossible for Franklin to just have his breakout offseason in peace.
Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin standing out already for Broncos at training camp
Pat Bryant continues to prove he’s legit. Gets open. Catches the ball. Smart.
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) July 25, 2025
He’s going to play a lot this year.
As good of an offseason as Franklin has been having, Bryant has also been impressive from the moment he stepped onto the field for rookie minicamp. The third-round pick out of Illinois is someone the Broncos had obviously circled on their draft board, because they took him at least a round earlier than the consensus seemed to expect him to go.
The Broncos landed Bryant in the third round, but his slower 40-yard dash time of 4.61 was expected to land him on Day 3 of the draft, at best. But the Broncos saw a Day 2 pick on tape, so that's when they took him. And so far, so good.
Ultimately, having multiple guys take big steps forward for the Broncos this year is anything but a bad thing. It's one of those "good problems" the team would like to have for a change. Other than an injury hiccup at mandatory minicamp, we've heard only good things about Marvin Mims, Devaughn Vele, Troy Franklin, and Pat Bryant this offseason.
And the Broncos desperately need all of those guys to be taking steps forward. The talk this offseason centered around the wide receiver position has been all over the place. Some folks have wanted the Broncos to pursue more proven players, others (like head coach Sean Payton) have wanted to keep with the process that's in place for these young guys.
They're taking a pretty big risk by sticking with the young guys, but so far, it's paying off with two key guys (with very different skill sets, I might add) having strong offseasons.