DENVER — In his previous two seasons at Oregon with Bo Nix as his quarterback, Troy Franklin had 142 catches for 2,274 yards and 23 touchdowns.
In his first two preseason games with the Denver Broncos with Nix as the No. 1 quarterback and the likes of Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson serving as worthy backups, Franklin had 0 catches for 0 yards and 0 touchdowns.
“I would say it was an adjustment for sure,’’ Franklin said Sunday after he broke out with a 21-yard reception and 9-yard run in the Broncos’ third and final preseason game, a 38-12 win against Arizona at Empower Field. “I had to adjust and make sure I’m still doing my run-blocking assignments, I’m making sure I’m still running my routes full speed because it’s still live.
“I would say I was definitely thinking a little bit like, ‘Damn, am I not getting open?’ Or whatever the case is, but you know things happen. My mentality was to keep my head down, keep working and it’ll eventually find me.”
Even if the production hasn’t shown up on paper, Franklin has been showing up well on the practice field, getting a step on defenders while running his go routes at 5th-gear speed. The quarterbacks just haven’t connected with him on the deep balls.
Still, Franklin is expected to make the Broncos’ season-opening 53-man roster. Projected as a second-round selection in a deep receiver draft in April, Franklin unexpectedly fell past Day 2 of the draft, or the third round.
With Day 3 and the fourth round coming up the next day, Payton delivered a spoken message to Broncos general manager George Paton: I really want this player (Franklin).
Paton got on the horn with his old friend John Schneider of Seattle and traded away three draft picks to move up 19 spots in the fourth round -- from No. 121 to 102, the day’s second pick -- to nab Franklin.
“I’ve been telling myself be patient, it’ll come,’’ Franklin said. “Stay down, keep working, even though it was only one pass and a reverse today it’s starting to stack up. Just trying to make sure I stay levelheaded, keep working and do what I can do.”
