Broncos' Troy Franklin selection about more than a familiar target for Bo Nix (2024)

If Bo Nix and Troy Franklin one day develop into the next great quarterback-wide receiver duo for the Denver Broncos, then March 18, 2024, will go down as a critical date in team history.

That was the day head coach Sean Payton and a contingent of coaches and evaluators flew to Eugene, Ore. The primary purpose of the trip was to put Nix, the quarterback for whom the Broncos were beginning to develop strong football feelings, through a carefully tailored workout. Nix blew them away, confirming everything they had learned about him in the preceding weeks, months and even years. He was an NFL-ready quarterback.

But he wasn’t the only Duck present at the workout who was waddling into Denver’s vision for the future.

Franklin, Nix’s top target during a season in which the quarterback became a Heisman finalist, shined in a support role. The 21-year-old wide receiver had spent the previous day sprinting all over the field at Oregon’s pro day, so his work on the field with Nix was much more abbreviated. But it was nonetheless impactful.

The smile says it all.

The moment @TroooyyyyyyTroy became a Bronco! pic.twitter.com/st7om8cULA

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) April 27, 2024

“It was really more spot-catching, but I just wanted to make sure that it obviously looked like I was catching the ball easily, fluidly, all of that good stuff,” Franklin said. “They had me run a couple of top of the routes, and did that fluid. So just making sure I had good conversations with them and things like that. I think I gave off a good first impression to them when they were out there.”

Said Broncos general manager George Paton: “We just got to know him a little more. … We got to spend an hour or two with him, and we really liked the person.”

On the surface, the selection of Franklin by the Broncos on Saturday — made after trading up to the second pick of the fourth round — is a move to further enhance the environment around their new quarterback. The Broncos have spent the offseason talking in glowing terms about Alex Forsyth, a seventh-round pick out of Oregon in 2023 who was Nix’s center during the quarterback’s first season with the Ducks. Forsyth is expected to be part of the battle to replace Lloyd Cushenberry, who signed a big contract with the Tennessee Titans in free agency. Those familiar faces should help ease the transition for the second-highest-drafted quarterback (Jay Cutler was No. 11 in 2006) in franchise history.

“It certainly can’t hurt,” Payton said.

Still, the Broncos insist Franklin’s connection to Nix was more of an auxiliary bonus than the reason to aggressively move up the board Saturday morning. The Broncos had a second-round grade on Franklin, and they believed that’s when he’d be selected. As the coaches and scouts in Denver’s draft room were preparing to head home Friday night after the third round, Franklin’s name stood out on their board among the players still available. If they wanted to draft him the next morning, Payton said, “it would be impossible for us to wait.”

Coincidentally, Payton got an out-of-the-blue text from former NFL wide receiver Dez Bryant late Friday night as the coach brushed his teeth. Bryant pitched Franklin as a receiver he thought was far too good to have slipped that far. Payton agreed. When he woke up at 6 a.m., he texted Paton, “Let’s get this player.” So Paton began searching for a trade partner at the beginning of the fourth round and found one in Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider. The teams have frequently done business since the Russell Wilson trade more than two years ago and quickly agreed on a compensation package that swapped fourth-round picks (No. 102 for 121), sent fifth- and sixth-round picks to Seattle and brought a seventh-round pick back to Denver.

“It was universal,” Paton said of the team’s desire to move up for Franklin. “It was a consensus.”

The reason the Broncos were so enamored could be explained in the three letters included in Payton’s text reply to Bryant the previous night: “LOS.”

“He is a guy we were really impressed with at the line of scrimmage,” Payton said of Franklin. “He is real quick out of his cuts. Some players, maybe versus bump and run, that can be problematic. Some players excel versus it. He is one of those guys that has really quick feet, and he can run. George and I were watching Bo, and we are seeing the results of this player. … That value stood out when we left here (Friday) night.”

Elite weapon. @TroooyyyyyyTroy 🤝 @Broncos #ProDucks pic.twitter.com/zt3hhw7gVQ

— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) April 27, 2024

The vision for the 6-foot-2, 176-pound Franklin is as an outside Z receiver — he lined up outside on nearly 81 percent of his snaps at Oregon — but Payton also sees him as a playmaker who can stack in bunch formations because of his ability to release in tight space. In his scouting report on Franklin, The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler noted the receiver’s tape last season was “full of focus drops, especially in tight coverage.” Franklin dropped nine passes overall, so his monstrous totals — 81 catches for 1,383 yards and 14 touchdowns; the latter two numbers were school records — could have been even higher. Still, Franklin has “explosive” traits the Broncos needed to add among their playmakers, particularly after trading Jerry Jeudy in March, and they’ll work closely with Franklin on technique to help address the drops issue that crept up last season.

“Some players like (Broncos seventh-round pick Devaughn) Vele are going to play in traffic more and be contested ball catchers,” Payton said. “Some players are guys that are going to separate and play differently. (Franklin) did a really good job with yards after the catch. We saw a lot of explosive plays.”

Those are traits the Broncos could have used regardless of who was playing quarterback. But even if the Broncos downplayed the significance of Franklin’s connection to Nix after the draft, it shouldn’t be discounted. A glimpse at the FaceTime call they shared after Franklin was drafted Saturday illustrated the connection that has already formed for the new NFL rookies over the past two years.

“Let’s go! You’re a Denver Bronco!” Nix shouted. “That couldn’t have worked out more perfectly.”

“We’re good now,” Franklin responded. “It’s over for ’em.”

(Photo of Bo Nix and Troy Franklin: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)