The Denver Broncos have hit a lot of homeruns in the NFL Draft in recent years, and it's built up to this moment. The team's roster is a top-3 group in the NFL, and it would not be a stretch to see this team winning the Super Bowl this year.
Obviously, that does not mean all is well. The Broncos are shaky at a small handful of positions, or at least do not have as much talent as others. Ideally, the weaker positions improve, somehow, during the season, and soon become non-issues.
And if we look back a couple of years, a recent draft pick's selection by the Broncos could actually be haunting the team.
The Denver Broncos may have missed out on two chances for impactful players...
Wide receiver Troy Franklin, through two seasons, has been a solid pick for the Broncos. After almost being a total non-factor during his rookie season, Franklin saw a massive uptick in his production in the 2025 season, finishing with 65 receptions, 709 yards, and six touchdowns.
His passer rating when targeted also jumped from 71.5 in year one to 85.8 in year two, but as fans have seen, there has been some meat left on the bone. Franklin has dropped some passes that simply should not be dropped, and as a complete product, he's just not there yet.
It also felt like quarterback Bo Nix was forcing him the ball at times during the 2025 season, and Franklin just isn't that type of player. The Broncos actually used pick 102 in the 2024 NFL Draft to take Franklin, but in doing some deeper digging, this may have been a huge mistake.
The Broncos actually traded up to take Franklin. According to prosportstransactions.com, the Broncos traded picks 121, 136, and 207 for picks 102 and 235. Denver took Franklin with the first pick and Devaughn Vele with pick 235. Vele isn't on the team anymore, and that 121 pick that Denver traded to the Seattle Seahawks was actually used on tight end AJ Barner, one of the more encouraging young tight ends in the NFL.
Secondly, just a few picks later with the 106th selection, the Tennessee Titans took linebacker Cedric Gray, who really broke out in year two and also appears to be a young, up and coming player at a position that the Broncos aren't too strong at.
Not only did Denver trade away a pick that would be used on a rather complete tight end, but missing out on Gray is also a rather brutal reality, in hindsight, of course. With the Broncos having swung a deal for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, and Franklin not necessarily guaranteed to earn that de-facto WR3 role this year, is this pick actually haunting the Broncos a bit?
In 2025, Barner hauled in 52 passes for 519 yards and six touchdowns. He had a 114.8 passer rating when targeted, according to Pro Football Reference. In 2025, Gray racked up four passes defended, 164 total tackles, and seven tackles for loss in 16 games for the Titans.
If the Broncos simply did not have Franklin in the picture and instead had one of Barner or Gray, things would be looking even more encouraging than they are right now. Yes, this is 100 percent a hindsight exercise, but it's also one to think about.
Franklin did take a massive step in the right direction in year two, but the two weakest positions on the roster are currently at tight end and inside linebacker, and based on how the 2024 draft went, the Broncos may have totally whiffed on filling one of those positions with a stud young player.
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