Troy Franklin is a really good receiver.
Talk about about stating the obvious.
For the last three seasons, Oregon football fans watched Franklin blossom from a lanky freshman receiver into one of the best in college football. According to ESPN’s Mel Kiper, he turned himself into a late-first-round draft selection.
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In his latest mock draft, just one of seemingly several thousand you can find on the internet this time of year, Kiper says the Oregon star should prepare to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes as the Kansas City Chiefs will pick Franklin at No. 29 overall.
Franklin averaged 17.1 yards per catch in 2023 and had 23 receiving touchdowns over the past two seasons. He is a big, 6-foot-3 target with deceptive speed who can break tackles after the catch. This isn’t the first time I’ve projected Kansas City to land a receiver in Round 1 — I gave them Zay Flowers in my final 2023 mock — but the hole is too large to not fill here. By the way, this makes seven wideouts in Round 1, which would tie the record for most in a single draft (2004). — Mel Kiper, Jr.
Interestingly however, the quarterback who threw to Franklin all those times for the past two seasons, Bo Nix, was not included in Kiper’s first-round analysis.
He has four quarterbacks not named Nix going in the first round that will include Caleb Williams (No. 1, Chicago), Jayden Daniels (No. 2, Washington), Drake Maye (No. 3, New England) and JJ McCarthy (No. 16 Seattle). Not only did Kiper leave out Nix, he left out Washington’s Michael Penix as well.