Troy Franklin — Week 1: One Carry, One Fourth-Down Target
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Tuesday, Sep 15
Franklin had one carry, five yards around left end with 6:22 left in the half, and one target — Denver's last real snap, fourth and eight at its own 29 with 4:41 left, deep left, incomplete. Pat Bryant led the Broncos with six targets, Courtland Sutton and Evan Engram had five each, and Jaylen Waddle three, in a 31–10 loss to the Chiefs.
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31 to 10, Chiefs, four 41 left in the game, fourth and eight at the Denver 29. Bo Nix threw deep left for Troy Franklin, incomplete, and Kansas City took over and ran out the clock. −2.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — on a play that could not move the win probability because there was none left to move. It was Franklin's only target of the night.
The line: one target, no catches, 31 yards in the air on the throw; one carry, five yards around left end on first and 10 with six 22 left in the half, on a drive that ended in a punt. The carry came before halftime, the target after. No third-down target, no touch inside the 20.
The split: Pat Bryant six targets, Courtland Sutton five, Evan Engram five, RJ Harvey four, Adam Trautman three, Jaylen Waddle three, Franklin one. 28 throws on the night against 12 designed runs — Franklin's carry around left end was one of them — and Denver's hundred 31 passing yards were the fewest of any team this week.
Back in June the preview leaned watchlist on Franklin — the 80-eighth receiver at pick two 27, a WR33 season on a 17.8 percent target share that the Waddle trade had pushed into a fight for the third role — and named three things to watch: the pecking order behind Sutton, his September target share against last year's 17.8, and whether Nix trusted him near the goal line. Monday's answer to the first two was one target out of 28, behind Bryant, Sutton, Engram, Harvey, Trautman and Waddle — seventh on the team. One game in an offense that threw for a hundred 31 yards is a thin sample, and the one target was a fourth-and-eight prayer. But seventh in the pecking order is the number, and it is the one the preview said would decide his season. The Broncos are home to the Jaguars on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
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