Troy Franklin Fantasy 2026: Is the Broncos WR a Late-Round Sleeper?

Troy Franklin had a quietly useful second season and almost nobody is paying for it. He drew 104 targets, caught 65 of them for 709 yards and six touchdowns, and did it with a downfield role most last-round receivers never touch. For 2026 he is going off boards at a WR88 price, effectively the final pick of a fantasy draft. The gap between a 104-target second-year receiver and a last-round cost is the reason to look.

The role is the interesting part. Franklin ran a genuine vertical route tree, posting a 30.2% air-yards share and a 12.7-yard average depth of target. That is a field-stretcher's profile, not a manufactured-touches slot piece, and it means any uptick in efficiency or target share plays up in a hurry.

The deep role at last-round cost is the appeal

Franklin's 104 targets came on a full 17-game season, and the six touchdowns and 709 yards give him a floor of production most players drafted near pick 230 cannot claim. For deep leagues and best-ball rosters, a young receiver with a real air-yards share and a starting-caliber target count is exactly the kind of free lottery ticket worth holding at the end of a draft.

But the room got more crowded, not less

Here is the problem the price is pointing at. Courtland Sutton is the entrenched Denver alpha, with 124 targets for 1,017 yards and seven touchdowns on an 85% snap share and a team-high 35.3% air-yards share. And the Broncos added to it: Jaylen Waddle arrives after a 100-target, 910-yard, six-touchdown season in Miami with a 40.1% air-yards share, joining the 76-target underneath role Evan Engram already holds. Franklin now profiles as the third or fourth mouth to feed, and his 104-target share is the most likely casualty.

Bo Nix's short profile caps the deep upside

The quarterback fit adds another layer of caution. Bo Nix threw to a 7.3-yard average depth of target with an 11.8% deep rate in 2025, a quick-game, short-area profile. A downfield receiver like Franklin needs air-yards volume to hit, and a passer who lives underneath limits how often those deep shots come. The vertical role is real, but the pipeline feeding it is conservative.

Where WR88 lands

At a last-round price the math is forgiving. The bull case is that a young field-stretcher with 104 targets holds flex value if the target order breaks his way or an injury opens snaps ahead of him. The bear case is that Sutton, Waddle, and Engram squeeze his share and a short-throwing offense caps the ceiling, leaving him a bench stash. At WR88 you are paying for the upside without much downside risk.