Tag: Troy Franklin

Sean Payton downplays Bo Nix and Troy Franklin reuniting in the NFL

The next Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase? Slow down. We love Bo Nix and Troy Franklin, but let’s see it on the field first.

Three rounds after selecting Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with their first pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the Denver Broncos added his favorite wide receiver: Troy Franklin.

Franklin was thrilled to be picked by the Broncos, and the quarterback and receiver are understandably excited about reuniting in the NFL. Fans are excited about the chemistry between the duo that can carry over into the pros, but coach Sean Payton downplayed it this spring.

“A lot is made of that, I get it,” Payton said on May 11. “No one’s asked me about the [Jonah] Elliss-[Devaughn] Vele connection from Utah. It certainly doesn’t hurt. They are two young players working to improve, and then periodically on a play they happen to — but I think it’s a different system now, different routes. I think that being familiar with another player helps, but so much of that ends up being coincidence.

“Now what wasn’t a coincidence was when we selected Bo, and we had been to the pro day and a private workout. At Bo’s private workout, Troy was there and a number of teammates — they didn’t have to be — they were there. You get to know these guys, the running back [Bucky Irving] really made a good impression. So after the first round, the next day we were having lunch, and Troy hadn’t been drafted. I asked Bo, ‘How does he learn? Just one more time through, take me through it.’ But I think that, like, if didn’t even know, you would have said, ‘Man, Vele seems to have a pretty good rapport with Bo today.’ In other words, I think maybe it’s a little overblown.”

Those comments from Payton might be an attempt to put a damper on unrealistic expectations, but he did admit their experience together in college certainly won’t hurt. How much it helps remains to be seen.

Some Broncos fans might be envisioning the next Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase connection, but it should be noted that Burrow was a No. 1 overall pick and Chase was a fifth overall pick. Nix, meanwhile, was the sixth QB taken in his draft and Franklin was a fourth-round pick.

That’s not to say Nix and Franklin won’t have success in the NFL, but fans expecting a Burrow-Chase duo might be disappointed. Payton is smart to temper expectations. Denver obviously hopes they turn out to be a great QB-WR combination, but fans should let it play out on the field before making any bold proclamations.

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Broncos QB Bo Nix dubbed a perfect scheme fit for Sean Payton’s offense

“[Sean] Payton needs a quarterback who will do very specific things,” and Bo Nix seems to be the perfect choice.

Last month, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar released his list of the top scheme fits for players picked in the 2024 NFL draft.

Oregon quarterback Bo Nix and wide receiver Troy Franklin were among seven players who made Farrar’s list. Nix (first round) and Franklin (fourth round) were picked by the Denver Broncos in April.

Farrar believes the QB and WR will be a perfect fit for coach Sean Payton’s offense.

“Sean Payton has some very specific things he wants in a quarterback,” Farrar wrote on Touchdown Wire. “He wants a mobile guy who runs to throw, as opposed to just creating chaos.

“He wants a quarterback who can throw to all levels of the field intelligently. And he wants someone smart enough to adhere himself to Payton’s passing concepts. … In the 2024 draft, Payton made it abundantly clear which guy he thought best fit that paradigm when Denver selected Oregon’s Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick in the first round. That was seen by some analysts as an overdraft, but those analysts aren’t in Payton’s head, and again, Payton needs a quarterback who will do very specific things.”

To view more of Farrar’s analysis and the full list of top scheme fits following the NFL draft, visit Touchdown Wire.

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Broncos offense should get a boost with WR Troy Franklin

Broncos coach Sean Payton has been pleased with rookie WR Troy Franklin. “He can run,” the coach said.

After selecting Oregon quarterback Bo Nix in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft in April, the Denver Broncos used a fourth-round pick to select his favorite receiver, Troy Franklin.

Franklin has the size (6-2, 176 pounds) and speed (4.41-second 40-yard dash) that the Broncos like in an outside receiver, but he has the versatility to move around the field. The fact that he played with Nix in college is a bonus.

“We see him as an outside ‘Z,’” Payton said of Franklin’s position after the draft. “He has really good speed. He is a guy we were really impressed with at the line of scrimmage. We also had the combine and even at Bo [Nix]’s private workout he was there. We probably had a little bit more exposure [to him]. There was a lot more coincidence to that [drafting Oregon’s QB and WR]. That is just how this draft unfolds sometimes. There was a really unique player with a high grade, call it two rounds over, that is sitting there by himself.”

The Broncos moved up to the top of the fourth round to make sure they were able to land Franklin on Day 3 of the draft. 

“He is real quick out of his cuts,” Payton continued. “Some players, maybe versus bump and run, that can be problematic. Some players excel versus it. He is one of those guys that has really quick feet and he can run. George [Paton] and I were watching Bo and we are seeing the results of this player. Certainly our scouts and coaches had him graded [higher than his draft spot].

“When you watch his tape, some players like [Devaughn] Vele are going to play in traffic more and be contested ball catchers. Some players are guys that are going to separate and play differently. He did a really good job with yards after the catch. We saw a lot of explosive plays. That value stood out when we left here last night. The big question was if there was going to be a partner the next morning at the other end that is willing to do a deal. We were lucky enough to find one.”

Franklin averaged 17.1 yards per reception in his final season with the Ducks, racking up yards after the catch. That YAC ability will be a great addition to Denver’s offense.

“Yes, especially in the fourth round,” Payton said during rookie minicamp last month. “He can run, and you saw that today. He’s an eager learner, he’s excited. He’s a player that is going to play inside these numbers, but he’s a player that obviously can play outside these numbers … we’re anxious to work with him, excited to work with him.”

Franklin, 21, will return for mandatory minicamp next week before a summer break. The rookie receiver and his teammates will be back on the field in late July for the start of training camp, followed by preseason in August. Fans will get their first look at Franklin in game action against the Indianapolis Colts on Aug. 11.

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Broncos WR Troy Franklin signs 4-year rookie contract

The Broncos have signed wide receiver Troy Franklin to a four-year rookie contract worth about $4.875 million.

The Denver Broncos have signed wide receiver Troy Franklin to a four-year rookie contract, the team confirmed Saturday afternoon.

Franklin (6-2, 176 pounds) was picked by the Broncos in the fourth round of this year’s NFL draft out of Oregon. He was the last member of Denver’s seven-player draft class to sign his rookie year. Per terms of the CBA, all seven rookies received four-year deals, and quarterback Bo Nix’s contract includes a fifth-year option because he was a first-round pick.

As for Franklin, his deal is worth $4.875 million and includes a $854,836 signing bonus, according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. The Broncos now have about $7.7 million in remaining salary cap space going into the summer.

Franklin and his teammates will return to Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit for the third and final week of organized team activities that resume on Monday. After that, Denver will have a mandatory minicamp the following week and then a summer break.

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A new look at Bo Nix in a Denver Broncos Uniform

Check out the first look at Bo Nix in a Denver Broncos uniform from the NFL Rookie Premiere.

Bo Nix has been the Denver Broncos quarterback for over a month now, and in that time, a lot has happened for the former Oregon Ducks QB. Nix participated in the Broncos’ rookie mini-camp, and he’s begun offseason training activities (OTAs), where he’s impressing early on.

Nix also took part in the NFL’s Rookie Premiere, a marketing event in Los Angeles that took place in early May. Earlier this week, the NFL Players Association released a video of Nix from the Rookie Premiere, giving us our first true look at Nix in the Mile High Orange. These uniforms are also new for the Broncos, and this is one of the first looks at Denver’s new threads on a player.

It’s exciting to see Nix go to a team coached by Sean Payton, one of the most successful offensive coaches in football, but he is walking into an organization that’s been riddled with quarterback turmoil. Since Peyton Manning retired after the Broncos’ 2016 Super Bowl victory, Denver has had 14 players start at quarterback. The Broncos believe Nix can end that long line of defeat, but only time will tell.

We also got our first look at Troy Franklin in Broncos uniforms from the Rookie Premiere, in videos released a few weeks ago. Franklin and Nix could be a special connection to the NFL, but Nix has other weapons as well. Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick, and DeVaughn Vele (another 2024 draft pick) are all talented wideouts and good names to know.

Of course, transitioning from Oregon to the NFL will mean a significant downgrade in Nix’s on-field fashion week-to-week, but these first glances at Bo in Broncos threads look pretty good.

Photos of new rookie Oregon Ducks at NFL minicamps

Bo Nix and other former Ducks have made an appearance in various NFL rookie camps around the league.

The NFL doesn’t waste much time in getting their rookies acclimated to life in the league.

Just a couple of weeks after the draft, former Ducks such as Bo Nix and Troy Franklin have participated in NFL rookie camps this past week. Nix and Franklin are with the Denver Broncos and defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus is with the Atlanta Falcons.

Casey Rogers and Taki Taimani have joined fellow former Duck Kayvon Thibodeaux with the New York Giants and offensive lineman Steven Jones is with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The NFL pre-season is in August with the 2024 regular season starting the first week of September with the newest class of Ducks making their impact.

Here are a few pics from the various rookie camps from around the league.

Sean Payton’s Broncos offense could benefit from Bo Nix/Troy Franklin reunion

Sean Payton reunited Bo Nix and Troy Franklin from their days together at Oregon, and the Broncos’ offense could be a big deal as a result.

Sean Payton has some very specific things he wants in a quarterback. He wants a mobile guy who runs to throw, as opposed to just creating chaos. He wants a quarterback who can throw to all levels of the field intelligently. And he wants someone smart enough to adhere himself to Payton’s passing concepts.

Russell Wilson was none of those types of quarterbacks, which was one of many reasons things didn’t work out between Payton and Wilson with the Broncos last season. In the 2024 draft, Payton made it abundantly clear which guy he thought best fit that paradigm when Denver selected Oregon’s Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick in the first round. That was seen by some analysts as an overdraft, but those analysts aren’t in Payton’s head, and again, Payton needs a quarterback who will do very specific things.

In “The Xs and Os” back in March, Greg Cosell and I got to watch tape with Nix for half an hour, and from that, there should be no question about Nix’s football intelligence.

As to everything else Payton wants, the coach was pretty effusive after he got his guy.

“He’s extremely smart,” Payton said of Nix. “We tried to send these guys similar tests—they were identical—the night before, 5:00 p.m., e-mailed the test. When I say the test, the series of first-, second-, third-day install. So quite a bit to study. [When it is] 5:00 p.m. and you get three days of install, and we’re meeting at 9 [o’clock] in the morning, it’s almost purposefully a little bit more than we think. Then at what point do they fail? In other words, it’s a lot. These guys all were really impressive. We got there at 9 a.m. and we gave him the test at 5 p.m. He’s sitting there in the office, and you could tell that he probably had been in the hotel room, do not disturb, pot of coffee, just grinding on it. So he’s extremely intelligent, really smart. He handled a lot of the protections.

“I gave you five or six different statistics. Negative play differential. When you watch him, it’s pretty calming. He’s very efficient, and it’s not just because of the [underneath throws]. You see a ton of NFL throws in their offense. His accuracy, he set an NCAA record. Then was he making the throws that we’re going to ask him to make? I think the one thing over the years, if you study it closely, guys that get sacked a lot in college tend to get sacked a lot in the NFL. Sometimes, that might be processing. Often times, we’ll look at the offensive line, the ball comes out and it comes out sometimes in funny body positions. He has a quick stroke.”

The Broncos also gave Nix a bump up in the person of Oregon receiver Troy Franklin, Nix’s most efficient and explosive target, with the 102nd overall pick in the fourth round. I’m not quite sure how Franklin lasted that long — I had him as a second-round prospect — but the fit was clear for Payton and general manager George Paton.

“We see him as an outside ‘Z,'” Payton said of Franklin’s potential deployment in his offense. “He has really good speed. He is a guy we were really impressed with at the line of scrimmage. We also had the Combine and even at Bo’s private workout he was there. We probably had a little bit more exposure. There was a lot more coincidence to that. That is just how this draft unfolds sometimes.”

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: The best offensive scheme fits in the 2024 NFL draft

From Jayden Daniels to Xavier Worthy, Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar get into the best offensive scheme fits from the 2024 NFL draft.

There are at least two stages of evaluation when dealing with draft prospects. There’s the work you do watching tape of a player in a vacuum pre-draft, when you’re looking at a player’s attributes and liabilities overall. Then, when the player is drafted, you’re trying to figure out why the team selected the player, and how that player best fits in his new home from a schematic and performance perspective.

With the 2024 NFL draft in the rearview, it’s time for Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, to determine the best scheme fits from this class.

Greg and Doug begin on the offensive side of the ball, with these players:

  • Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders
  • Bo Nix, QB, Denver Broncos
  • Troy Franklin, WR, Denver Broncos
  • Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams
  • Jonathon Brooks, RB, Carolina Panthers
  • Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
  • Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
  • Ladd McConkey, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
  • Kimani Vidal, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

You can watch this week’s Xs and Os right here:

You can also listen and subscrive to the Xs and Os podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Betting odds for Bo Nix, Troy Franklin, Bucky Irving to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year

Can Bo Nix, Troy Franklin, or Bucky Irving win the NFL Rookie of the Year? Here are the odds.

The Oregon Ducks saw a program-record eight players go to the NFL a week ago in the 2024 draft, headlined by guys like Bo Nix, Troy Franklin, Jackson Powers-Johnson, and Bucky Irving all landing with their professional teams.

There are a ton of guys who will get a shot to prove themselves as rookies in the 2024 season, but it’s fair to think that the three skill-position guys could potentially pop in their respective offenses, especially with the QB and WR combo that Nix and Franklin will form in Denver after playing together at Oregon.

After all the dust has settled from the draft, FanDuel Sportsbook released their betting odds for popular future bets, like offensive and defensive rookie of the year. Here’s where the Ducks are listed:

  • QB Bo Nix: +1900
  • WR Troy Franklin: +10000
  • RB Bucky Irving: +15000

It will obviously be the easiest for Nix to win the award since it often goes to a quarterback, but should either Franklin or Irving pop as a rookie, they could be good longshot bets as well.

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Broncos Wire podcast: QB competition, trades and UDFA sleepers

On the latest Broncos Wire podcast, Ryan O’Leary and Jon Heath discuss Bo Nix and the QB battle, trades, sleeper UDFAs and the new uniforms!

What a whirlwind of an offseason it’s been for the Denver Broncos!

One week after the 2024 NFL draft, I joined host Ryan O’Leary on the Broncos Wire podcast to discuss Denver’s quarterback situation, recent (and upcoming?) trades, sleeper UDFAs, the new uniforms and much more.

You can listen to episode No. 109 below:

Follow the Broncos Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | <ahref=”https://bit.ly/3o7jZOm” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Google Podcasts

 

Check out our notes from this week’s podcast below. 

Broncos draft QB Bo Nix 
  • Denver used the 12th overall pick in the first round to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. Good move?
Broncos trade for QB Zach Wilson 
  • Denver sent a 6th-round pick to the Jets in exchange for a 7th-round pick and QB Zach Wilson. Broncos and New York will split his salary (about $2.72 million each).
  • It’s a lottery ticket for Denver. Wilson probably isn’t going to become a great QB, but it’s a low-risk move and you never know. Worth a shot.
  • Broncos now have Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson at QB. Quite a summer competition. Will they carry 3 QBs? If not, who gets cut?
Broncos trade for DE John Franklin-Myers
  • Denver sent a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Jets for DE John Franklin-Myers. After paying Haason Reddick, New York couldn’t afford to keep Franklin-Myers, so the Broncos got a huge discount.
  • He had 50-straight starts for the Jets, totaling 14.5 sacks. I think of him as Denver’s new Dre’Mont Jones.
  • Broncos now have an excellent front-three rotation of Zach Allen, Franklin Myers, D.J. Jones and Malcolm Roach.
Broncos aren’t trading Courtland Sutton (right now) 
  • The WR room is very crowded, so we’ll see if a trade might happen later.
  • WRs: Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims, Tim Patric, Josh Reynold, Troy Franklin, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Jalen Virgil, Brandon Johnson, Devaughn Vele
Other notable draft picks 
  • Round 3: OLB Jonah Elliss, Utah (12 sacks last year; Dad played for DEN)
  • Round 4: WR Troy Franklin, Oregon (steal, Nix’s favorite WR; 14 TDs in ’23)
  • Round 5: CB Kris Abram-Draine, Missouri (good depth, versatile)
  • Round 5: RB Audric Estimé, Notre Dame (4.71, but bruiser, vision, smart) (es-ta-may)
2 notable undrafted free agent signings 
  • RB Blake Watson, Memphis (UDFA RB1)
  • OT Frank Crum, Wyoming (UDFA OT1)
  • RBs: Williams, Samaje, Jaleel McLaughlin, Audric Estimé, Blake Watson
Broncos got new uniforms 

What’s next? 

  • Rookie minicamp in May, then OTAs
  • NFL schedule coming May 9?
  • Mandatory minicamp in mid-June
  • Training camp begins in late July
  • Preseason and roster cuts in August
Ryan and I will return with new episodes as news pops up this summer.
If you enjoy this podcast, you can check out previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on your podcast service of choice. Please consider giving the podcast a positive rating and review!

You can listen to every past episode below or at this link.

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