Film Hints Broncos WR Troy Franklin’s Breakout is Just Getting Started

Troy Franklin's career day in Indianapolis goes under the Film Room microscope, and the takeaways for the Denver Broncos are exciting.

Sep 14, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Troy Franklin (11) celebrates scoring a touchdown during the second quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. | Robert Goddin-Imagn Images

Over the course of the offseason, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton remained steadfast in his passion for the players in his wide receiver room. Fans and prognosticators across the league pounded the table for the Broncos to target some sort of explosive playmaker at the position, even after signing tight end Evan Engram in free agency.

The team opted not to bring in any options outside of Trent Sherfield Sr., who was tabbed as a key contributor on special teams and as a blocking option at the position to fill the void of Lil’Jordan Humphrey's departure. The reasoning behind it? Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims Jr., and the growth they showed over the course of the offseason. 

Fast forward to this past Sunday, a grueling 29-28 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Lucas Oil Stadium, and you can see exactly why Payton is excited about the young players currently on the roster.

Second-year wideout Troy Franklin — an Oregon teammate of quarterback Bo Nix — had easily the best game of his career, leading the team with eight receptions on nine targets for 89 yards and one score, along with an 11-yard run on a jet sweep. While many of these targets were schemed to get the ball into his hands early in the play, it showed a great deal of faith that Franklin could step up to the plate and perform when needed, as well as a great deal of growth year-over-year.

Let’s dive into four plays from Week 2 to figure out if this was an anomalous performance, or just the tip of the iceberg in Franklin's trajectory.

Play 1 | Quarter 2 | 13:39 | 2nd-&-13

Troy Franklin using text book scramble drill rules for a huge gain pic.twitter.com/vun7MSKORk

— MHH_Film (@MHH_Film) September 17, 2025

Starting things off is Franklin’s second target of the game, a deep shot on a scramble drill that went for 42 yards. What immediately jumps off the page here is his understanding and execution of scramble rule drills.

Here, Franklin runs a simple out route from the slot and gets his eyes back to the ball. Once he realizes Nix is escaping pressure to his side of the field, Franklin uses his elite long speed to shoot up the sideline for a long gain.

This is textbook stuff. Scramble drill rules typically state one of three things. If you’re the shallow route in the concept, you need to go deep. If you’re the deep route in the concept, you need to work back to the football. If you’re working over the middle of the field, follow the path of the quarterback to present a checkdown option as the play progresses. 

Franklin uses these rules to his advantage to deliver an explosive play to jump-start the offense in the second quarter. Nix delivers a great ball while rolling to his left on this play, and Franklin shows off his improved ball-tracking skills while looking over his shoulder.

Franklin and Nix missed on several targets like this last year, so to see this (combined with Franklin’s deep shot touchdown against Buffalo in the playoffs) is a breath of fresh air for the second-year player.

Play 2 | Quarter 2 | 11:50 | 1st-&-10

Great run after the catch. This sets up a touchdown. pic.twitter.com/Iv0MMcJ6AB

— MHH_Film (@MHH_Film) September 17, 2025

A couple plays later, Nix finds Franklin on a RPO to set up a goal-to-go situation. This looks like a simple slant play into zone coverage, but notice how Franklin releases into the route with a quick stutter step to set up and hold the defender at the second level.

That simple release allows Franklin to create even more separation in the zone, then explode across the field and gain several yards after the catch. This is exactly what Nix and Franklin showed on tape in their time in Oregon — quick-hitting passes over the middle of the field that allow the receiver to open up his long strides and run in space. 

While Franklin doesn’t get into the end zone on this play, he does shortly after.

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Play 3 | Quarter 2 | 10:46 | 2nd-&-Goal

Nifty red zone design, specifically for Franklin. Too easy pic.twitter.com/1bqtINrCa5

— MHH_Film (@MHH_Film) September 17, 2025

Two plays later, to be exact. While this simple yet nifty red-zone design doesn’t look like much, it shows that Sean Payton has a trust factor and likes to reward his guys. I thoroughly enjoyed that Payton had Franklin appear as if he was down blocking on a run play to have him explode to the flat on an arrow route for the touchdown. Simple, yet effective

Each of these first three plays came on the same drive, and they show growth, trust, and reliability in a player who had several rough spots as a rookie last season. His route-running nuance, though still truncated at times, started showing in this game, and it appears as if things are starting to click for him at the NFL level.

Play 4 | Quarter 3 | 12:01 | 1st-&-10

Franklin's ability to run after the catch was on full display against Indy. Had a couple of these quick hitters and screens go for decent yardage. pic.twitter.com/KSVQniNHz4

— MHH_Film (@MHH_Film) September 17, 2025

After that drive in the second quarter, Payton mostly used Franklin on quick hitters and screen passes as an extension of the running game. Again, Franklin was a deadly player with the ball in his hands at Oregon, and as he has grown to the NFL level, he has gotten more of these types of opportunities.

Don’t let the simplicity of these plays cause you to think that Franklin hasn’t developed as much as a route runner. It’s more of a showing that he has the ability to make people miss tackles when he has the ball in his hands.

Franklin had a different tunnel screen pass called later in the game that went for 15 yards, but this play better accentuates his ability to make people miss at the second level. With only one blocker in front of him (the other play was executed to perfection from the offensive line), he has to make his defender miss in the flat, and he nearly breaks a second tackle to come up with another touchdown.

The Takeaway

This was a very exciting game for fans of Franklin to see him be able to take advantage of an extended opportunity as a receiver. While it was a lot of simple designs meant specifically for him, quick-hitting bubble and screen passes, and run-after-the-catch opportunities, he did a tremendous job showing catch-point reliability and willingness to play physically as a runner. 

Franklin said that he has added 10 pounds of muscle to his frame over the offseason, and based on what we saw against Tennessee and now Indianapolis, it doesn’t appear that he has lost any of his game-changing speed. What did change is his contact balance, and that’s a great sign for the team as a whole, especially if they continue to utilize him as an extension of the running game.

One game doesn’t make a career, but this was a very positive sign that Franklin is earning the trust of the coaching staff.