The Denver Broncos head into the offseason with one of the NFL’s most promising rosters. They consistently are being ranked among the league’s best in power rankings and are returning most of their starters
next season. They can only get better from here and for young guys like Troy Franklin, they have an opportunity to take the next step towards NFL stardom.
Luca Evans from the Denver Post wrote up a great article on Franklin before the Super Bowl. The whole piece is super interesting and gave plenty of insight into where Franklin’s mindset is heading into the offseason, but one thing stood out to me. He plans to add 10 pounds to his playing weight for next season.
Franklin, though, does want to specifically continue working on his releases off the ball and strength in order to “get me to that next step,” as he put it. The 6-foot-3 receiver ended his second season in Denver weighing around 184 pounds, he said; he said he plans to add roughly 10 pounds in the offseason and report to training camp at 195.
“Just be a little stronger, be able to just play through contact a little more,” Franklin said, of adding muscle in the offseason. “And everything else will be set.”
Outside of the drops issue, which he sort of addressed in that interview, the other thing Franklin struggled with last season was being able to play through contact.
When he got the ball in an uncontested way, he was deadly out there. That he wants to play closer to 195 than 185 would probably bode well for his ability to be a bit more physical in those contested situations. Besides, in the NFL, you are going to be contested more often than not as a wide receiver.
