Troy
Franklin.
Troy
Franklin.
Oregon· 6'2"· 176 lb· 4.41s 40
"A 176-pound track star with a 6-3 frame, Franklin's whole case was whether NFL physicality would cost him the speed that made him — it didn't, but it did cap him."Pre-draft read
Franklin was Oregon's field-stretching X and slot vertical threat, a rail-thin 6-3 target who accelerates to top speed within a few strides and separates by simply running past coverage. He eats cushion, snaps his head around late and adjusts to the deep ball without breaking stride, which is why so much of his production came on go balls and post shots.
The secondary trait is his stem work against off coverage, where he uses tempo changes to force early hip flips. He is a non-factor as a run blocker and rarely wins through contact. The athletic ceiling is the separator: track speed on a receiver body, with the ball skills to turn a step of space into an explosive play instead of a contested one.
A play-action, vertical-spacing offense (Shanahan tree or an Air Raid-influenced spread) that uses motion and reduced splits to keep him off press and lets him attack the deep third.
Year 1: rotational field-stretcher on 3-WR downs who forces two-high looks. Ceiling: a 70-catch, 1,000-yard No. 2 receiver in a pass-first offense that protects him from press.
A heavy-personnel, condensed-formation offense that asks its receivers to beat press man on the boundary and block on the perimeter — press corners erase him before the route starts.
His value rises sharply next to a physical possession X; asked to be the alpha, defenses just bracket the deep third and take him away.
Troy Franklin 2023 Oregon Highlights
Breakout junior season: vertical wins, deep tracking and the 14-touchdown tape.
Troy Franklin FULL 2024 NFL Scouting Combine Workout
On-field Combine work, including the 4.41 forty and the frame questions in full view.
Troy Franklin | 23-24 Highlights
Cutup of his route stems and separation reps across the final college season.
Franklin is a pure vertical separator, a long-strider whose entire game is built on speed, spacing and timing rather than physicality. He lined up outside and in the slot for Bo Nix at Oregon, and his identity is the same in both spots: threaten the top of the coverage, then let the offense operate underneath the space he creates.
The production curve was steep and real. He went from 18 catches as a freshman to 61 for 891 and nine scores in 2022, then blew up for 81 catches, 1,383 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2023 with Nix throwing him open. He ran 4.41 at the Combine, and the flag came in the same weigh-in: 176 pounds. Press corners could reroute him, contested throws were a coin flip, and his tape after contact was thin. Everything hinged on whether he could hold up to NFL physicality without losing the speed that made him.
The board consensus put him in the third-round range as a top-15 receiver in a loaded class, with the weight and play strength keeping him out of day two's early tier. Denver taking him at 102 was a chemistry bet as much as a talent bet — reuniting him with Nix and giving a young offense a field-tilting element it did not otherwise have.
- 01
Long speed
4.41 velocity that eats cushion in three strides and forces safeties to shade his side of the field on early downs.
- 02
Deep-ball tracking
locates the ball late over either shoulder and adjusts mid-stride without decelerating, turning 50-50s into clean catches.
- 03
Slot and outside flexibility
Oregon moved him freely, and he wins releases off the line as well as with a free run from a reduced split.
- 04
Route tempo
varies stem speed to freeze off corners, then breaks with enough burst to separate on digs, posts and deep overs.
- 05
Production against quality coverage
14 touchdowns and 17.1 yards per catch in 2023 against Pac-12 defenses that knew he was the deep threat.
- 01
Play strength
weighed 176 pounds at the Combine, and press corners with real hands can knock him off his track before the route develops.
- 02
Contested catch
struggles to win through contact at the catch point and loses too many jump-ball reps he should win at 6-3.
- 03
After the catch
a straight-line runner who rarely breaks a tackle, so short throws mostly gain what the blocking schemes them.
- 04
Blocking effort and impact
offers little in the run game, which limits how much an offense can hide personnel tendencies with him on the field.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.41sp50
- Vertical
- 39inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.90sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.31sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Oregon | 14 | 18 | 209 | 2 |
| 2022 | Oregon | 13 | 61 | 891 | 9 |
| 2023 | Oregon | 13 | 81 | 1383 | 14 |
| Career | — | 40 | 160 | 2483 | 25 |
Verified against cfbstats season logs; the three season lines sum exactly to the career totals (40 G, 160 rec, 2,483 yds, 25 TD).
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Field-stretching complementary starter whose value swings on how many vertical shots the offense is willing to call.
The ceiling: a lean speed receiver who turns route detail and deep tracking into a decade of 1,000-yard-adjacent seasons.
Speed-only WR3 who never adds enough physicality to hold a full-time role once the roster upgrades around him.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver drafted him to reunite with Bo Nix and got very little at first: 28 catches for 263 yards and two scores as a rookie in 2024, a WR4 role with drop issues and clear physical growing pains. Year two was the leap. He became the Broncos' No. 2 receiver opposite Courtland Sutton in 2025, finishing with 65 catches for 709 yards and six touchdowns on 104 targets — second on the team in production — while playing a full complementary role in a division-winning offense. The low 10.9 yards per catch told the truth about how he was used: mostly on schemed, quick-game volume rather than the vertical shots that made him at Oregon. Then the front office traded first-, third- and fourth-round picks for Jaylen Waddle in March 2026, pushing him to a WR3 competition with Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims in camp.
The evaluation reads well in hindsight. The speed translated, the frame concerns were real, and the ceiling landed where a 176-pound vertical receiver usually lands: a valuable complementary piece, not a target hog. Denver got a starter-caliber contributor at pick 102, which is a win — but the fact that a win-now team spent three picks on a receiver rather than build around him is its own verdict.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats season logs; the three season lines sum exactly to the career totals (40 G, 160 rec, 2,483 yds, 25 TD).