Brandon Stokley calls his shot on who will be the Broncos’ third wide receiver

The Denver Broncos wide receiver room is about to look very different than the one Bo Nix has grown up with over his first two NFL seasons. The addition of Jaylen Waddle immediately reshapes the depth chart at the top, pairing him with Courtland Sutton to form what should be one of the more balanced one-two combinations in the AFC.

But the intrigue in Denver’s receiver group doesn’t live at the top of that pecking order. It lives just behind it, in the competition to become the clear-cut third option.

On a recent edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Mike Evans asked his co-host to weigh in on the debate directly.

“Call your shot – who ends up being the Broncos third wide receiver?” Evans asked.

Brandon Stokley didn’t take long to answer.

“I gotta go with Troy Franklin,” Stokley said.

That’s a pick rooted in production that has quietly been overlooked in the offseason noise. Franklin’s rookie season didn’t dominate headlines, but the box score tells a genuinely impressive story. He finished the year with 65 catches, 709 yards and six touchdowns, numbers that would have been the focus of considerably more attention in a receiver room that wasn’t as talented top to bottom.

Stokley acknowledged how easy it has been to forget just how much Franklin contributed.

“We kinda forget, he had over 700 yards last year,” Stokley said.

Franklin’s season got buried under Sutton’s usual production, Marvin Mims’ explosive plays and the broader storylines around Nix’s development. But 709 yards from a second-year wide receiver, especially one who wasn’t the primary target on most snaps, is the kind of foundation that typically leads to a meaningful third-year leap. Franklin has the speed, the route feel, and the chemistry with Nix to slot naturally into the role of the third weapon in this offense.

Stokley then made clear that his projection wasn’t a definitive prediction so much as a lean.

“I’m gonna go Troy Franklin. But again, I wouldn’t be shocked or surprised if it was Pat Bryant or even Marvin Mims,” Stokley said.

That’s a fair caveat. Bryant finished last season with 31 catches for 378 yards and one touchdown as a rookie, showing enough to suggest a meaningful second-year jump is on the table. Mims contributed 37 catches for 322 yards and one touchdown, with the kind of explosive potential that Sean Payton has historically found creative ways to weaponize in his offenses. Both players carry real ceilings and both are capable of overtaking Franklin if the reps break their way.

The reality is that this competition may not resolve neatly. Payton has never been the type of play caller who locks himself into a rigid pecking order. Different game plans will call for different personnel packages, and the third-receiver conversation may end up looking more like a rotation than a title.

But when the season is over and the target share is tallied, Stokley believes Franklin will be the name at the top of that internal depth chart. The production was already there. Year 2 is when it becomes impossible to ignore.