Oregon WR Troy Franklin is one of the most productive pass catchers in college football, and he’s also one of the hardest 2024 NFL Draft prospects to find an NFL comp for. Is there a comparison for the unique, ultra-dynamic playmaker? Let’s find out.
Oregon WR Troy Franklin Rising as a 2024 NFL Draft Prospect
On the surface, the 2024 NFL Draft WR class looks like it could be historic.
Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. is a generational prospect at the top, but there’s lots of early-round talent behind him.
Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze, Keon Coleman, Emeka Egbuka, Adonai Mitchell, Brian Thomas Jr., Xavier Worthy, Ja’Lynn Polk, Devontez Walker, Ladd McConkey, Xavier Legette, Roman Wilson, Malachi Corley — the list goes on and on.
There’s one name, of course, that we neglected to mention in that group — Oregon’s Troy Franklin.
Compared to most of the names listed, Franklin is an outlier. Despite standing at 6’3,” he’s listed at just 188 pounds on Oregon’s website and could weigh in even lighter at the NFL Combine.
The list of receivers 6’3″ or above in height and below 190 pounds who’ve been successful at the NFL level is shorter than ideal, but the modern era is adjusting the guardrails for such prospects. And it’s impossible not to be taken by Franklin’s game.
Franklin first burst onto the scene in 2022. Catching passes from QB Bo Nix, he hauled in 61 passes for 891 yards and nine scores.
In 2023, with three fewer games, Franklin has already achieved career highs in multiple categories. He has 60 catches for 1,093 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Most recently, he only needed two catches to completely and utterly demoralize the USC defense. He even reached a blistering 22.3 miles per hour on his touchdown grab.
College Football’s Fastest Five of the Week:
1. @oregonfootball WR Troy Franklin (@TroooyyyyyyTroy) 22.3 mph #ReelSpeed
🎥: @CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/RY4Av1msvF
— Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) November 13, 2023
Franklin’s production profile, combined with his athletic talent as a high four-star recruit, has many projecting him to be a first-round pick and a Top-50 selection at worst in the 2024 NFL Draft.
At the same time, however, Franklin’s outlier skill set has some wondering how translatable he can be at the next level and whether there are NFL comps out there to validate his report.
With that in mind, let’s explore Franklin’s 2024 NFL Draft profile a bit more and see if we can find an NFL comparison that does justice to his physical profile, play style, and projected outcome.
Finding an NFL Comparison for the 2024 NFL Draft Star
Before we dive in, I’d like to go over some of my requirements for doing comparison work.
NFL comparisons aren’t something to take lightly. Once you suggest an NFL comparison for a prospect, regardless of your intent, there’s automatically an association between that prospect and the suggested NFL player’s skill set and league outcome.
Thus, my comparisons will be aimed at finding the best balance of skill set and projected outcome. Often, skill sets and play styles can be byproducts of a given prospect’s physical makeup.
For this reason, it feels right to narrow down the potential Troy Franklin comps to NFL players who share Franklin’s physical traits and overall profile.
Franklin’s profile, of course, is very unique. At 6’3″ and 188 pounds, Franklin has a height-weight profile that few NFL receivers can match.
We can allow some wiggle room for WRs who were less than 200 pounds, like Carolina Panthers WR DJ Chark and Detroit Lions WR Josh Reynolds, since it’s possible that Franklin will add up to five-to-10 pounds upon entering the league.
But even then, there’s another factor that needs to be integrated: Franklin’s rare brand of speed and mobility.
As he displayed against USC, Franklin has truly elite explosiveness and high-end vertical speed. He can reach almost 23 miles per hour in open field, and he has a reported 40-yard dash time of 4.35 — a near-elite figure.
Franklin’s speed automatically rules out a similarly-sized player in Reynolds. And while Chark has the requisite straight-line burst and speed, Franklin separates himself from Chark with his short-area energy and stride frequency.
Often, taller receivers are a bit slower and more leggy in their movements. But Franklin, despite his 6’3″ frame, is a fleet-footed accelerator who gains speed instantly with efficient, energetic strides, and he can use that same energy and twitch to off-set defenders and manipulate leverage while keeping speed.
Juxtaposing Franklin and other taller WRs, there is a trade-off. Franklin is lighter than most and isn’t quite as strong in contested situations. But at the same time, he can be relied on more than most taller WRs to achieve greater separation. He has shown he can make high-difficulty catches with stellar body control, timing, and coordination beyond his frame.
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As a separator, Franklin is still refining his game and expanding his route tree, but he has the necessary speed and flexibility to carve his way through coverage looks. He also has the hyperactive twitch and foot speed to offset DBs at the line with split and diamond releases.
In Franklin, we have a receiver who breaks out of formation with so many other taller receivers and wins in vastly different ways. He’s an outlier with the speed and dynamism of a smaller receiver.
By nature, the potential NFL comps for Troy Franklin are few and far between. But there’s one WR who comes to mind as a quality match — in terms of physical profile, play style, and projected outcome.
Franklin’s 2024 NFL Draft Comp: Robbie Chosen
The pro comparison I landed on for Oregon’s Troy Franklin is former New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, and current Miami Dolphins WR Robbie “Chosen” Anderson.
Anderson played his collegiate ball at Temple. He caught 44 passes for 791 yards and nine scores in 2013 before being ruled academically ineligible in 2014. In 2015, he returned to the field and caught 70 passes for 939 yards and seven scores.
At his Temple pro day, Anderson — at around 6’3″, 187 pounds — ran a 4.36 40-yard dash, jumped 36 1/2″ in the vertical, and jumped 10’8″ in the broad.
Despite his stellar testing, Anderson went undrafted in the 2016 NFL Draft, in part due to his academic issues. But once he was able to focus completely on football and carve out a role in a professional offense, he thrived.
Anderson’s best NFL seasons came in 2017 with the Jets and in 2020 with the Panthers. In 2017, the second-year Anderson hauled in 63 catches for 941 yards and seven scores. In 2020, he became less of a big-play threat and more of a separation machine, notching 95 receptions for 1,096 yards and five scores.
It’s important to note that Anderson’s career was heavily impacted by unsavory situations and inconsistent QB play. His QBs, from the start of his career, consisted of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown, Sam Darnold, Teddy Bridgewater, and then Darnold again.
At his peak, Anderson was a potent vertical threat who could also find soft spots in intermediate zones, make plays past his frame on the boundary, and be used as a versatile RAC threat. Being a lighter WR, he naturally wasn’t as proficient through contact, but his skill set translated, nonetheless.
Anderson was extremely productive in his best years, and there’s a case to make that he could’ve been even more productive if situational and off-the-field factors hadn’t played a role.
That enhanced outcome, however, is open to Franklin, who brings a very similar kind of dynamic ability and energy to his motion.
While Franklin might not be a bonafide WR1 with his lacking mass and play strength, he has the tools to be a Pro Bowl-level complementary threat and vertical attacker whose combined speed, quickness, and frame will make him a nightmare for DBs — much like Anderson was at his ceiling.