One of the most interesting position battles to monitor in the 2025 offseason for the Denver Broncos is at wide receiver, where it's Courtland Sutton and a host of unknowns right now.
Sutton has been the team's de facto WR1 over the last two years, and he's done well despite being the only legitimate threat last year. But Sutton can't be the only consistent receiver on the team, and the Broncos can't afford for the receiver room to be as unpredictable week-to-week as it was a season ago.
Some weeks, Marvin Mims played great. Other weeks, it was Devaughn Vele. We got the occasional big play from Troy Franklin. And Franklin is the guy under the microscope as the 2025 offseason program gets underway for this Denver Broncos team.
Troy Franklin under the microscope as Broncos start on-field OTAs in 2025
Franklin was a fourth-round pick last year, but a highly-regarded fourth-round pick who was given a 2nd-round grade by the team coming out of Oregon. Huge expectations were heaped upon Franklin, unfairly, because he was college teammates with Bo Nix.
Everyone just assumed that if Nix was going to have success as a rookie in the NFL, Franklin would be part of it since the two had developed a great chemistry at Oregon. It turns out that doing what Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase have done together in the NFL is not as easy as just throwing on an NFL jersey and putting up numbers.
The chemistry between Nix and Franklin was actually more of a disastrous experiment than it was a perfect coalescence. All of Broncos Country absolutely rejoiced when the two came together for a deep ball connection in the playoffs against the Buffalo Bills.
And everyone, including the Broncos, are hoping that deep ball connection in the playoffs can be the launching-off point for something even better in 2025.
Franklin, at this point, doesn't seem to be guaranteed a role in the Broncos' offense. He's going to get significant competition from third-round pick Pat Bryant as well as fellow second-year reciever Devaughn Vele. The target share in the offense is going to be vastly different as well with the addition of players like Evan Engram and RJ Harvey into the offensive weaponry.
The offseason program is going to be critical for Franklin in terms of his role for this team in 2025, otherwise he faces the reality of falling into the difficult trap of being out of the rotation and having to wait for an injury to get any sort of extended snaps.
He's one of a number of offensive playmakers skating on thin ice as we get into the heat of summer for the Broncos.