It’s that time of year. Does the Denver Broncos be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? Unfortunately, slow starts in recent years have caused the Broncos to fall out of the playoffs very early.

This year, there’s a different buzz about the Broncos. Players on the trading block are linked to the Broncos left and right, many of them at wide receiver or tight end positions.

While I wouldn’t mind seeing the Broncos make a move at the tight end position if they were to make a trade, the wide receiver question might have already been answered internally. Broncos rookie Troy Franklin is showing signs he could be a legitimate weapon in the NFL sooner rather than later.

The game seems to be slowing down for Franklin, and he seems to be forming a nice connection with Bo Nix again. On top of that, it appears the Broncos coaching staff is starting to believe in Franklin as a real asset to the offense.

Franklin could become the second-best wide receiver on this list in the future. Here are some signs that point in this direction.

Josh Reynolds’ injury left a void in snaps received per game. The biggest beneficiary of Reynold’s absence was Franklin. Even before Reynolds was injured a few weeks ago, Franklin was already starting to see his snaps per game increase.

For three straight games, Franklin has seen his snaps increase, going from 12 in Week 2 to 17 in Week 3 to 19 in Week 4. Over the past two weeks, Franklin has seen 37 and 33 snaps, respectively. He saw the second-most snaps for any wide receiver on this list, behind Courtland Sutton in both games.

I expect this trend to continue as Franklin started to produce with 31 yards and a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers and five catches for 50 yards against the New Orleans Saints.

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One of the Broncos’ big gripes this season has been wide receivers and tight ends not getting open and giving Nix an easy throw to keep the offense running in time. I would push back on some of these criticisms, as there have been a number of plays where the receivers are open, but they are missed for one reason or another.

One of Franklin’s best abilities, however, is his ability to get open early and stay open with his great speed down the stretch. A new stat tracks how often a receiver can get open on plays when a team is trying to completely shut him down. This eliminates screens and long third downs where the defense stands in front of the sticks and allows underhand passes, etc.

Against the Saints, Franklin had seven such chances. He managed to separate on each of these seven pieces.

Only one other NFL receiver was able to accomplish this in Week 7. By the way, seventh-round rookie Devaughn Vele managed to get separation on eight of his 10 opportunities, so there could be two Broncos rookies emerging in the second half of the season that could be on the positive side of production, helping the offense get on track.

Franklin has the profile of a wide receiver who can dictate how teams run coverages, and this is the final area we could see become a bigger problem over the next few weeks. He can win underneath, as he showed last week, but he also has the speed to win from above, making teams respect him with extra help from above.

As Franklin starts to get a little more attention, that should start to give Sutton and Vele more individual opportunities to win in the short and intermediate categories. Most teams haven’t had much respect for the Broncos’ receivers outside of Sutton.

On obvious passes, opponents followed Sutton’s side of the field and challenged any other Broncos receiver to beat them. That receiver could be Franklin, who is making some defenses pay, showing that he is now settling into this offense and is ready to be the playmaker the Broncos drafted him to be.

Many thought this year would be a redshirt type season for Franklin, but if the Broncos want to be a serious contender, it’s going to take someone like him or Vele to prove themselves to be that true second receiver capable of making the big play in case of need.

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