www.denverpost.com/2024/05/19/troy-franklin-broncos-rookie-receiver-prove-wrong/
[McFadden] Those who know Broncos rookie WR Troy Franklin best are certain of one thing: “People are gonna wonder how he fell so far”
If you are a regular person and know an undrafted rookie who was cut before the regular season, that guy is probably the fastest, strongest, and biggest person you will ever meet
Knew a guy in HS who went on to be a featured basketball player on a Final Four team but never made it past the g league, and yep, most athletic tall guy I’ve ever met.
Same! The big man at Pitt in the early 2010s went to my highschool but I don't think he ever sniffed an NBA roster.
Gary McGhee?
Yeah that's him! I remember I accidentally stepped on his shoes in a crowded hallway when I was a freshman and he was a Junior and he just towered over me looking down. I've never felt so small as a human.
I also remember that he was really big but super clumsy and would get stripped going for the basket. We lost our sectionals his senior year on a few of his mistakes. I'd see him around the YMCA in college but it just goes to show how different people like him are and then the people who actually succeed at the highest levels of professional sports.
Grew up with a current CB on the saints and I have never met a more freakishly athletic human being in my life
Also grew up with two professional baseball players and those guys can barely get out of the minors for more than a month at a time but were the greatest two pitches I’ve ever seen in my entire state
Just because I'm a bigg CBB fan, what was your friend's name?
Latavius Murray once ran me over in a high school game. 63-0 I think the score was. Funnily enough most of the hype was around the qb Chris Hart, with his brother Mike Hart playing for Michigan at the time. He was good but Murray just moved differently. Obviously could bowl us over, but the field was just mud and he was cutting on a dime. Loved that he was on the Vikings at least for a few seasons
Can vouch for this, I played with Efe Obada in the UK before he moved to the U.S.
First time I ever wondered if the sport was for me
Sounds like a first ballot guy to me
He was the best guy arouuuuuuund
How much you wanna bet I can throw this football over ‘em mountains?
The off-season is so tiring. “Everyone is confused how he fell so far”. Waiting patiently for players to get the “you can see the offense slowing down for him” tweets
“He’s in the best shape of his life”.
How did Caleb Williams fall all the way to the Bears pick?
Troy should wear #101 because of the disrespect every team showed by taking that many players before him.
He actually chose #16 because thats how many WRs were picked ahead of him. So he kinda did what you are talking about already lol
Decamerion clamping him
it isn’t that surprising, although I would’ve taken him a bit earlier.
light frame (6’2 176)
speedster/deep threat that didn’t log an elite 40 or 10 yard split (4.41,1.61)
the latter was much worse than Keon Coleman (1.54) who was notoriously maligned for his speed
limited route tree
high drop rate (10% in 2023, 8.8% over career)
Slowest 10 yard split amongst WRs at the combine this year. Though NFL.com has it listed at 1.61 secs not 1.79
https://www.nfl.com/combine/tracker/live-results/10-yard-split/wr/all-colleges/
my bad, think I saw the 79 athleticism score and my brain mixed it up.
Supposedly he was sick as hell at the combine, but yeah that was definitely at least part of why he fell. If he was that sick, I don't know why he tested at the combine, and then didn't retest at his pro day. I feel like the guy was getting some terrible advice, or was not listening to good advice.
I don't know why he tested at the combine, and then didn't retest at his pro day.
he came in 7 pounds heavier for pro day, im guessing he expected to test around the same range at the new weight and/or was fine with previous time
Or he lost a little time off his 40 after putting on weight and wanted to hide it. Not uncommon for light players that get heavier before their pro days to skip some drills.
yeah that’s what I mean. getting up to 183 probably was perceived as more meaningful than cutting down to 4.38.
Speaking of the Combine he really messed up on the Gauntlet drill which was the scouts favorite this year because Puka had aced it last year.
I remember now that Franklin was used as a stress test with Coleman after Coleman blew the 40 but aced the gauntlet.
Whole "track speed vs game speed" argument. Coleman hit the fastest speed running the gauntlet and smoked Franklin, who is known for speed.
In a game you don’t catch 6 balls on one play 🤷♂️
Not with that attitude you won’t
Apparently you've never been at the bottom of a dogpile
You also can’t get a free release at the line of scrimmage for 40 straight yards wearing no pads and no helmet.
Course not. But it’s a pretty good way to get an idea of speed
Weird to say that the gauntlet isn’t a good way, but the 40 is.
Neither are especially good. But CBs and WRs do run 40 yards. They don’t catch 6 balls
Yep this definitely dropped his stock. He didn’t seem to trust his hands just judging by the way he weaved away from each throw. That combined with his drop rate scared GM’s off. If he puts in the work I think he’ll get it corrected
I don’t know what exactly the deal is, but I heard a few places that teams were concerned about his passion for the game. Those reports always scare me.
light frame (6’2 176)
That's real thin for that height, for an nfl player
6'2" 176 is a good bit skinnier than Devonta Smith was before he bulked up.
And Devonta is only 6'0
I don’t trust that number at all.
Honestly that's a bad sign if you don't.
He was measured at that weight and height at the combine, and those scales have a negligible margin of error.
He was that skinny when he ran and tested so poorly. If he's nowhere near that skinny when he plays, that means he's going to be even slower than he tested.
I’m sayin Smith was probably 160 soaking wet. At best.
Bro if you think the scales at the combine are the types of measurements that get fluffed or have any significant margin of error idk what to tell you.
There are lots of events with a bit of subjectivity to them, but not that.
At the combine where they measured him at 166 pounds, he actually weighed less than 160?
U also forgot he was also soaking wet
I’m 6’2 175 and I would get snapped in half instantly lol
I’m 6’2 185 and I would die if I got tackled by a lineman.
That’s my height and weight and I’m a dude on the couch. I weighed the same even when I was in really good shape, but that was doing endurance sports I didn’t need muscle mass for.
Dude must be crazy skinny
Is 4.41 really not considered elite these days?
Low 4.4s is still really freaking fast, I think the 10y split was a way bigger concern than the 40.
it’s great for most players but R1-2 guys classified as speedsters or deep threats typically run around 4.3-4.35
Meh... the dude has very nice tape from actually playing football. All these metrics don't really capture that. I'm not saying he's guaranteed to be a star, and I see his shortcomings (particularly his weight) but I would have taken him in the 2nd/3rd given his body of work. I'm really happy we got him in the 4th round.
Guys aren't getting obliterated in the middle of the field like 10 years ago. Getting a guy at this spot that actually has some really good tape is a good find. Even if he never becomes a starter or is always injured etc., it still wouldn't be considered a bad pick just considering where he was taken. Not expecting much in this round.
AI is running in the 4.2’s
He's gonna be another guy where if he's good people are gonna clown teams for missing on him and act like he was a sure first top 10 pick and there was no reason for him to fall.
glances at DK and his extensive college injury history
Can someone explain the limited route tree criticism? Is learning to execute routes really that complicated? Genuinely asking, not trying to start shit.
It means they haven’t developed that skill set yet. Sometimes it’s because they haven’t been asked to do more and just need to be coached up. But most of the time it means they have film of all these different routes and they’re only good at a few.
Frankin can do more than just run fly routes but he has some struggles.
Matt Harmon has this to say:
“He doesn’t look quite comfortable working over the middle. His deep route success rates are stellar and his curl route success rate will go down as one of the top scores in the class. However, he fell below the prospect average on digs and slants and that will be a roadblock in developing into a high-volume player at the next level.”
On top of this he does not do well against press man coverage. This is where his weight is primarily a concern.
He does very well against man and zone but needs space to operate. I think he’ll have success but will never be a number 1. I think he’s a decent compliment to what the Broncos have if Sutton can stay healthy.
Yeah, it is. Route running is hard and really separates good WRs from great ones.
There's a lot to it. Winning the release, making crisp cuts at the right depth, being aware of the timing. E.g. Alex Pierce on the Colts seemed to have problems making crisp cuts to create separation so they utilized him as deep threat on go routes almost exclusively. Also depending on speed/height/catch radius/contested ball skills some receivers might be more suited to certain routes and not get used on other routes. Teams are always on the lookout for a pure X receiver who can do it all, line up wide or slot and win all kinds of routes.
I really think a receivers weight is overrated now. Defenders barely can touch them… they’re pretty much allowed to run free. The rest of your points are valid though
They still block. I guess it depends how much you rely on screens and running outside.
You’re right but they’re in space so it’s slightly easier. It’s not like they have to move a defender to create a hole like lineman. It’s more of just get in the DB’s way and let your athlete make a play.
Keon’s 10 yard split is in the 87th percentile, so this is pretty misleading. His speed beyond that is what was criticized.
Well then it’s dumb ass hell considering his game day top speed this year rivaled Achane and Hill last season.
Yeah, they could just have said Franklin had the slowest 10-yard split of all the WRs at the combine and got their point across.
He also had by far the worst gauntlet drill which is the best indicator of game speed at the combine. He looked so damn clunky and slow.
I remember them going over it when the combine happened and felt bad for the guy
He’s this years Hyatt for the broncos
I was out on Coleman because of his measureables and “high lights” of him not being able to separate.
I studied him a bit more after he was drafted and found that the dude catches almost everything in traffic and that Travis did him no favors a lot.
Still concerned though as NFL DBs are much stronger and better at dislodging contested balls but I have no choice to root for the guy.
I don’t understand why this keeps getting thrown around. It’s like somebody put out false information on him on purpose to tank his stock.
He’s 183, he weighted in low at the combine cause he was just getting over the flu.
See flu comment, but I also don’t know where the ‘speedster’ thing even came from. I watched him all of college, he was never known as a speedster. He’s a good route runner, gets guys turned around.
He ran a limited route tree last year because that’s what they asked of him. He ran a more diverse route tree the year before.
He did have a high drop rate last year but it was uncharacteristic of him compared to previous years and a lot were pretty difficult catches.
it’s not false information though?
he weighed 176 and ran a 4.41 at combine.
he weighed again at Pro Day and kept that 40 time.
he had drop issues this year
he had a limited route tree this year for his most successful season at Oregon.
context might suggest reason for optimism with his career, but it’s not false statements.
No but it seems the statements were accepted without context by everyone including NFL teams. After all, he did fall pretty far. His playing weight has to be closer to the 183 number because otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to gain that much weight in one month. 4.41 isn’t a speedster time but he wasn’t good because of his speed so it really shouldn’t matter much. He may have run faster if he wasn’t recently off the flu but yes, idk why he didn’t run at his Pro Day. Maybe he wasn’t training for it anymore and thought that time would be good enough, not sure. He did have drop issues but he was also the deep threat and commonly double teamed so that’s not surprising, those are tough catches. Though I admit I haven’t seen the tape of his drops so idk how egregious they were. The route tree only matters because it signals that a player can’t do other routes, but he showed that he can in 2023. His gauntlet is the only reason that can’t be explained away by context. For the record he admitted that he didn’t train for the gauntlet, he only trained the 40. Even Payton said he had no idea why he fell as far as he did, and would have taken him in the 2nd if they had a pick there. Just very strange, I hope we find out from some GMs what the reason was cause right now I’ve only seen conjecture, no direct quotes
Yeah...that whole flu thing...IDK. That's what Nate Wiggins said also about why he weighed in low too. His listed playing weight in the season was 180s. He showed up at 173. Then 180s for pro day. https://africa.espn.com/nfl/story/\_/id/40057907/ravens-nfl-draft-first-round-nate-wiggins-corner-marlon-humphrey.
I don't know anyone that loses 8-10 lbs from the flu unless they have complications in which they don't recover for months. Who do you know that loses that much weight from being sick for a week or two? Highly conditioned athletes at that? Flu is no joke but that's a ton of weight.
The more likely issue is that the trainers they went to see to prepare for the combine told them that they are speedsters known for blazing speed so they need to show blazing speed at the combine and then put back on the weight after for pro day.
I have no doubt that Franklin hammed it up for pro day and probably weighs high 170s, but so did every other athlete so I think using the 180 number is reasonable. In terms of losing weight though, I weigh right around where Franklin weighs. When I get the flu I’m down bad for about 5 days. I easily lose that much weight in those 5 days and then I’m exhausted for another week. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was going through that.
I certainly can't rule it out. I don't mean to discount your experience. Everybody is different. It's just hard for me to believe that both of them had the same excuse for coming in underweight by around the same number of lbs.
Troy was listed at Oregon as 187. He weighed in at 176 and back to 183 at his pro day. 11 lbs lost and 7 lbs gained back.
Wiggins was listed at Clemson as 185. He weighed in at 173 at the combine and back at 182 for pro day. 12 lbs lost and 9 gained back by pro day.
That still makes me think there wasn't a flu but a strategy used to get better 40 times. However, I don't care, I just think it is funny. If they were ill, glad they are better. I'm going to watch for it next year.
And I think he’s at the bottom of the list for the Treadwell-Diggs hypothesis.
He isn't really a speedster/deep threat. That is a plus element of his game, but that's not his game. Nearly half his targets came within 10 yards or behind the LOS. Only 23% of targets were deeper than 20 yards. He was ranked 15th in the nation in YAC. His avg DOT ranked 24th, behind MHJ, Legette, Polk, and Odunze. He also graded out at 14th in the nation against man coverage and 11th against zone. He reminds me a lot of Aiyuk. Will be great in the intermediate and can play against man and zone, making him very versatile.
Pretty good receiver class too
With all the hundreds of players to watch out for this could be the most heated race for Rookie of the Year in centuries. There are at least 5-600 candidates who could easily take the title at this point. Back to you Jim.
This is what you call a “puff” piece
I still get pissed we got robbed of Martavius Bryant’s prime for that bullshit.
Feels like when guys fall that far teams are usually pretty right.
Tbh there is always a sleeper or a steal in the draft. We cannot be sure about what it is right now because they haven’t stepped on a game
In 3-4 years we may know if the fall was justified or a mistake
Definitely. I’m just saying that when players fall like that, it tends to be “right. It’s not 100% and he definitely could be a great player that makes the entire league look dumb
Like Nakobe Dean everyone was saying top 40 player and he fell to what the 5th? He kinda sucked. Teams were right.
I’ll never forget all the UGA fans on the Falcons sub throwing the world’s biggest fit and saying the Falcons were the most trash organization in the league for passing on a homegrown talent like Dean and letting the Eagles get the steal of the draft.
If there is a chance (however small) at being a breakout outlier, I’d at least prefer a player with tons of analytical signals
True
Exactly why posts and statements like this are somewhat meaningless.
Like what team isnt gonna talk up their draft picks prior to camp?
If this was late August and he flashed in camp it would have way more weight
Not with WRs. Usually you can hit in mid round picks likes rbs. Some of the best ever weren’t first round picks. From Owens to aj brown rn
It’s boggling my mind that no one is talking about it but this is all about the chemistry. Comfort between a receiver and QB is a massive advantage from day one. It happened in Cincinnati and that seems to have worked out pretty well. Not saying Bo and Franklin are the same as Burrow and Chase but that kind of instant chemistry is a massive intangible bonus
I honestly think it is a bit overblown. It will show up in camp and possibly early season, but the QB will develop chemistry with the other receivers just fine as well.
Agree to disagree. Some players just connect and it’s hard to teach or train. These dudes played lights out together in college and if Bo can play I expect that to bear out. I’d suggest watching some games if you haven’t. Pretty fun to see the TD machine
DK fell to the end of the 2nd when most people were mocking him top 20
DK has serious medical issues that probably took him completely off some teams boards
Don't know why you're being downvoted. Dude had a season ending neck injury and broke down after his combine testing because he wasn't sure he'd make it back from the injury. Wouldn't be surprised if some teams hear the word "neck" and stop watching the player's tape immediately. Those are scary.
It still remains to be seen if DK can be a consistent top receiver... And that includes attitude
While I agree with the attitude and consistency concerns, he’s been a top 15 to top 20 WR since his 2nd season in the NFL. He’s certainly not one of the elite WRs but his production is definitely worthy of a mid to late first in retrospect.
This could be Hakeem Butler 2.0.
Yes but also we literally just had puca nakua happen last year
Again, he was not expected or projected to go in the 1st or high second.
Did we forgot about Amon Ra St Brown?
He wasn’t expected to be a 1st or high 2nd tho
“Usually” is the important part of the sentence. Some exceptions don’t mean teams aren’t usually right.
I never saw him projected as a top 60 pick
According to analytics in aggregate, draft "steals" perform just as well as players picked at the position they were expected to go.
However, draft reaches in aggregate do perform worse than players picked where expected.
This is because multiple nfl teams have to be wrong about "steals" while only one team has to be wrong about a reach.
I don’t get what you’re saying. Are you saying that any player who drops from the consensus big board is likely to perform as well as the picks where they were slated on media big boards to go? Color me skeptical of that.
No, the pick they end up at
Ok so steals aren’t really steals but reaches often are reaches? That makes a good bit of sense.
Then they are gonna watch nabers and odunze and go "nvm i get it"
I don't think anybody thought he was a top-10 pick.
he was the #4 WR for PFF so not top ten but definitely high first round
that’s PFF though, they had Andy Isabella as a 1st round guy
Perhaps one of the most undervalued players in this year’s NFL draft is UMass WR Andy Isabella, who is coming off the season as PFF’s highest-graded wide receiver. At No. 30 on the PFF draft board, Isabella is much more than a slot receiver and could potentially be a steal in this draft.
https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2019-nfl-draft-profile-wr-andy-isabella-massachusetts
Yeah, year on year their grading is very weird. It's become more of an issue now that they have the only functional mock draft simulator
TDN used to be my favorite then the site went to crap. Fanspeak was also great, not sure how functional it is anymore.
I still use the TDN one because it's free. They just redesigned it, but it's still not as user friendly and comprehensive as the PFF one (which is probably why PFF costs to go past the first round).
What counts as high first round? Being the 4th best in a position only gets you in the top of a round if you’re a QB. I can’t imagine many other positions that have had 4 players selected in the top 10 of a draft.
He was still going late first in most of PFF’s mock drafts that I saw.
He was never ahead of those guys.
There was a little bit of a gap between Nabers/Odunze and Franklin
Or look at Brian Thomas stats. That dudes gonna be a superstar
I mean his film is incredible, I don't know exactly what made him fall so badly
I expected him to last to middle of 2nd round
He really stood out in the few Oregon games I caught. While some other players who tested better were just another guy on the field.
I watched every single snap. I loved his film. Aggressive towards the ball, high points, creates separation.
He had some drops but to me it wasn't anything major given the difficulty of his catches.
Can we please start using commas again?
Why stop at commas? Proper punctuation is dying, and Twitter is killing it. We've replaced punctuation, conjugation, and grammar with emojis and GIFs.
Punctuations for queers
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I mocked him at 32 not gonna lie. I think he’s a stud
fuck it I’m all in on him too
I caught several oregon games this year, i fully expect Nix, Franklin and bucky to be stars. It looked like men amongst boys.
Similar thing happened when baker Mayfield came out and I became a bandwagon browns fan for a few seasons, I'll try to catch some bronco games this year
I mean yeah, if you take into account that over half the teams they played were below .500 and they got destroyed when they finally played a good Washington team not once, but twice.
Two tight 3 point wins = destroyed, got it. Franklin had 8 catches, 154 yards and a touchdown in the first game
Yep and he had 4 catches for a whopping 34 yards the 2nd time around. The reality is Oregon played 1 good team last season and lost to them both times.
Washington destroyed Oregon? That’s news
lol yea what a wild take. Both games were really tight.
It was an offensive barnburner. Super fun game for the championship that got me hyped on both players as potential 12th pick grabs for us
Colorado, Utah, Oregon st and Liberty, all top 20 teams and Oregon smoked em all, like actual smoke not 3 point wins.
And I'm talking about 3 offensive players, they put up 30+ points in both losses to Washington, so I'm not really even sure what your point was.
As a Ducks fan, Troy is gonna kill. Funny they drafted Bo Nix and Troy, two decisions they are not going to regret
It's almost like different teams have different needs at other positions
I had him pegged as a 1st rounder.
Who’s throwing it to him, I legit don’t know who’s their qb
RemindMe! 9 months
They talk to his mom or something?
Trope alert 🚨
I see Kimber post, I downvote.
I mean I know a ton of rookies get this buzz but there’s something about his size, production and qb that inspires me. I’d take him over Keon Coleman that’s for sure.
Are we just posting every Broncos beat report now?
Damn. Sean Payton working over time on PR for his draft. Will be funny when it bites him in the season
User deleted comment
14d
It's not even from the Broncos, it's like his friends and family which is even dumber.
Penner has built the Great Value Bot Network for viral marketing
Lol isn't this the same team that thought they struck gold when they traded away their future for Wilson? They should probably stick to proving themselves before they go do this all again.
Yeah but he’s on the Broncos so he will see underutilization and will be relatively unknown until he leaves his prime.
But Denver has always had good (Sutton, Jeudy, Patrick, Decker, Royal) to elite (DT, Marshall, Sanders) receivers...
And yet last season they averaged less than 200 passing yards per game with just over 3000 passing yards on the season. And that includes the games where Wilson popped off and then your front office decided to turn the season into a total loss.
You're not wrong about the overall offensive output but Russ never popped off. He had 2 300 yard games and they came in week 2 and 3.
They turned the season into a loss when we were eliminated from playoffs and didn't want to risk Russ getting hurt and being stuck with him for longer because of injury guarantees
I'm not arguing against that at all? I'm saying these receivers are not relatively unknown at all, even in the years where we have had bad QBs: Orton, Cutler, Tebow, Seimian, Bridgewater, Wilson, Lynch, Lock. These WRs are very well known, not to mention your team traded for one of them.
Okay I’m talking about a little more recently. Jeudy should’ve been a more legitimate deep ball threat and Mims Jr. not being involved whatsoever in the passing game or in the offensive effort outside of special teams is just poor scheming. Regardless of QB play, the offensive play scheming has been bad AND hasn’t adjusted to the weapons the Broncos have readily available. Javonte Williams not breaking out when he was healthy wasn’t even his fault. They weren’t getting him the ball in smart situations even when the defense was playing well.
Yeah tell me you didn’t watch any Broncos games without telling me. Jeudy was open more often than a 7/11, Russ just couldn’t find anybody
I live here and watch local games every Sunday that I can catch them. The play design was ass.
And yet you’re still a Browns fan after the whole rapist money grubbing sitch? You’re a special kind.
Bro, this isn’t even about my team, but okay. See you in the playoffs next season. Oh wait… you’re not going to be there. Better luck in 2025, bum.
I’d rather lose every game for the rest of eternity than be a Browns fan. Gross.
It’s a good thing because the broncos are about to do a whole lot more losing than winning. How does it feel to remember that the Browns made an older, shittier Joe Flacco look better than the Broncos did all the way back in 2019? The browns may have spent more money on piece of shit people, but at least they aren’t paying Wilson of all people almost $90m to play on ANOTHER TEAM in the AFC. I don’t know what’s going to be better, beating the Steelers Possibly led by Wilson, or watching the Steelers beat the Broncos possibly led by Wilson AT HOME. YA BUMS!
You’re just proving my point bro.
So sad that Puka will only get to keep his rookie records for one season. /S
Everyone trying to replicate the Amon Ra "I've been disrespected" vibe. Which is kinda hard to pull off since you've been so white that you've been drafted.
Team that drafted player thinks they got a good deal.
Right…
Just like Bo Nix, wow Broncos really nailed this draft based on what they are telling us.
Getting cooked on defense
I’m not going to believe a single word coming from the Broncos while Sean “lying fuckface” Payton is there
He's in the best shape of his life
Can't catch and is slow out of breaks. That's terrifying
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Breaking news. Players friends thinks they are good.