Troy Franklin Camp Update — August 16: Sliding Toward Fifth in a Room He Helped Carry

Troy Franklin, who drew more than a hundred targets as the second option on a 14-win offense last season, is being estimated as low as Denver's fifth receiver, behind Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Pat Bryant, and Marvin Mims. That estimate comes from Chad Jensen at Denver Broncos On SI back on August 6, along with the underlying observation: Franklin is getting fewer practice opportunities than Bryant and Mims.

The June read on Franklin was a tension between the player and the room. The player earned his case: a genuine second-year leap, heavy target volume that our research says is the stickiest thing a receiver owns, and scoring that was earned rather than lucky. The problem was never in his play. Denver traded for Jaylen Waddle, and we said the room may now be the deepest in football, that the volume which made Franklin look ascendant was earned before Waddle arrived to claim a piece of it, and that the first thing to watch was the camp pecking order. We framed the fight as Franklin against Waddle for the perimeter snaps.

The pecking order has spoken early, and the surprise is who is winning. It is not Waddle, who has spent the window sidelined by a leg strain. It is Pat Bryant, the second-year man who caught the play of camp and is effectively running ahead of Franklin in the rotation. Fairness requires the full picture: Jensen's same reporting notes Franklin made the winners column on consecutive days while Sutton and Waddle were absent, and his own comments are the right kind, it comes down to being consistent, when the ball comes my way I have to make the play. He is competing, not fading. But a hundred-target season should buy a veteran the benefit of the doubt in August, and the rep counts say it has not.

Does the June read hold? CONFIRMED. We said the crowded room was the threat to the sticky volume, and the room is proving it, with a name we did not even center.

Next week: whether Franklin climbs back ahead of Bryant when Bo Nix debuts against Green Bay, and how Waddle's return reshuffles the rotation again. We'll check next Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._