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MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 21: Jaylen Waddle #17 of the Miami Dolphins reacts during the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium on December 21, 2025 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
The Denver Broncos made a splash move on Tuesday when they traded away their first and third round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft – in addition to swapping fourth rounders – to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.
Waddle was recently named as one of the cornerstones of the team by Miami’s new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. However, the offer was clearly too good to pass up for the Dolphins’ front-office, and the Broncos take the opportunity to push their chips into the middle of the table as they look to go all-in on the final two years of quarterback Bo Nix’s rookie deal, having come so close to reaching the Super Bowl this past season.
For Denver, this move leaves them with five viable, starting caliber wide receivers: Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant. And according to ESPN’s Ben Solak, the team could well be getting calls from interested teams looking to trade for two of them.
Which Receivers Could the Broncos Trade?
Sutton has long been the #1 receiver on the team, a role he may well end up acquiescing to Waddle in the not-so-distant future. But despite his age – he will turn 31 in October – it is highly unlikely he will be moved due to both his consistent production and the structure of his four year $92 million extension signed last summer, which makes him financially unfeasible to move untiil 2027.
Given that the team will almost certainly decline to move on from the highly promising Bryant, who enters his second year on the back of an excellent set of performances to end his rookie season, that leaves Mims and Franklin as potential departures.
“The Broncos now have Jaylen Waddle, Marvin Mims, and Troy Franklin. With Courtland Sutton and Pat Bryant in hand, gotta imagine they’ll hear trade calls on Mims and Franklin”, Solak posted on X after the major trade.
How Would Mims and Franklin Be Valued on the Market?
Although both players were lumped together into the same potentially “open to be traded” category by Solak, the trajectories of both players hardly resemble each other.
Mims has struggled since being drafted in the second round of the 2023 draft to be predominantly used as a weapon from the slot; remaining a contributor, but much more than a bit-part one through his first three years in the league.
On the other hand, the 6’3 Franklin just had his best, and what some would call his breakout season in football, after posting 709 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns – the most in both categories in 2025, save only for Sutton.
The trade values for each player would be vary somewhat significantly; an upwards trending boundary receiver with two years left on his rookie deal v.s. a semi-productive but limited slot-man in his contract year.
Franklin could command as much as a third round pick this year’s draft, whereas Mims would not go for much more than a fifth or sixth rounder.
Daniel Arwas Daniel Arwas is a sports writer who covers the NFL for Heavy.com. Daniel began his career in sports writing in 2022 and has covered the NFL and college football for Gridiron Heroics and The Hammer. More about Daniel Arwas
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