The Denver Broncos appeared to have made one of the best value picks of the 2024 NFL Draft when they traded up in the fourth round to select Oregon wide receiver Troy Franklin.
The move not only paired Franklin with his college quarterback, Bo Nix, but the Broncos got a wide receiver some draft analysts had a second-round grade on in the fourth round. To this point, Franklin has struggled in training camp and his fall down the draft board is beginning to seem understandable.
Geoffrey C. Arnold recently discussed Franklin's struggles over at OregonLive.com along with his fall down the depth chart.
But he made the following statement which is just not accurate.
"There’s speculation Franklin could be an outright casualty during the final roster purge, but that would be a surprise given the Broncos traded up to draft Franklin. A potential scenario is him being signed to the team’s practice squad."
The Broncos are likely to keep six wide receivers on their 53-man roster. Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr. and Josh Reynolds will make the team. Tim Patrick likely sticks around and seventh-round pick Devaughn Vele has looked better than Franklin this summer. Still, there is no chance Franklin is waived.
And even if he were to be, there is even less of a chance of him clearing waivers to be added to the practice squad.
Broncos can afford to bring Troy Franklin along slowly
Surprises happen with nearly every team when roster cuts are made. It's difficult to get down to a 53-man roster and tough choices have to be made.
That said, the Broncos traded up 19 slots in the fourth round to get Franklin. He may be having a rough camp, but the team won't give up on him that easily.
If they keep the other five wide receivers mentioned above, they could afford to make Franklin a gameday inactive for much of the season to protect him from being grabbed by other teams. He could get off to a slow start, but the Broncos will give him more of a chance than Arnold suggests.
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