ENGLEWOOD, Colo. —On Demaryius Thomas' final night as a Denver Bronco, Emmanuel Sanders joined him at his home to watch some football.

The pair — known as Thunder and Lightning on the field — took in the game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots.

At that point, before news broke Tuesday that Thomas was headed to Houston, Sanders and Thomas thought he could be traded to New England in the morning.

They talked through that scenario briefly, but Thomas didn't have much to say.

"He didn't really say much," Sanders said Wednesday. "His vibe was just, 'I don't really want to leave, but I'm trying to see the [positives] of it.' I felt for him. You want to talk about a guy that is a longtime Bronco, he wanted to stay here and wanted to retire a Bronco. He didn't want to go. At the end of the day, they traded him and he had to go. That's the nature of the business."

Nearly every Bronco that addressed the trade that sent Thomas to Houston echoed the same sentiment: that Tuesday's move was part of the business.

That didn't make it any easier on the locker room, particularly for players like Sanders, who has grown close to Thomas during their five seasons together.