As Denver Broncos training camp rolls on, the fight for the No. 3 receiver job is getting sharper by the day. Behind Courtland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle, Denver has a real mix of options in Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr. And while Franklin might look like the obvious answer at first glance, last season’s usage tells a more complicated story.
Franklin did open 2025 as the Broncos’ clear No. 2 receiver. He finished with 102 targets, exactly twice as many as Bryant, and added 30 more catches. That kind of volume says Bo Nix trusted him, and that trust makes sense given their connection in Denver and at Oregon before that.
But the late-season trend line leaned the other way.
Bryant, a rookie last year, didn’t make much noise as a receiver early on, but he became more involved as the season moved forward. From Week 11 on, 25 of his 35 receptions came in, while Franklin had just 23 catches over that same stretch.
Bryant also missed two games with a concussion during that period, and in those games Franklin accounted for 10 of his 23 catches. Even with that missed time, Bryant was clearly starting to climb.
The snap counts tell the same story. Franklin logged 684 snaps to Bryant’s 489, but that gap doesn’t really reflect how the rotation was shifting.
Franklin barely had to compete for work early, playing 135 snaps over the first three weeks while Bryant was stuck at 32 snaps in three games. That part is straightforward: Franklin started as the No. 2 receiver, no question about it.
Then Bryant started taking over more of the role. He also helped push veteran Trent Sherfield Sr. off the roster, cutting into the snaps that had been available for the rookie.
From Week 11 through Week 18, Bryant played 200 snaps in only five games, missing two more because of injury. In each of those five games, he was on the field for at least 35 snaps.
Franklin, meanwhile, played 225 snaps over all seven games in that span, but only 164 of them came in the five games Bryant was available. His role shrank as Bryant’s grew.
The biggest separator between the two is blocking. Bryant may not be perfect there, but he established himself as a dependable run-game blocker when aligned in the slot or on the boundary.
Sean Payton values that kind of work in the slot. Franklin, by contrast, brings nothing in that area.
And Denver’s offseason moves make the picture even clearer. Jaylen Waddle’s arrival upgrades everything Franklin offered to the offense, which means Franklin is expected to see less of the field as the Broncos lean into being more efficient with fewer snaps while still chasing more big plays from a young receiver group.
That’s why Bryant looks like the better bet to finish the year with the third-most wide receiver snaps. The big catch, though, is health.
If Waddle gets hurt, Franklin would likely see more work. Bryant also has his own durability questions after missing two games late last season with a concussion and then sitting out playoff time because of another concussion and a hamstring injury.
If Bryant stays on the field, he should be the one in line for that WR3 workload. But as always with a receiver room, staying healthy matters just as much as earning the role.
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