Height Weight: 180 Age: 31 : 5-11: 180: 31

Born : 3/17/1987 Bellville, TX

College : Southern Methodist

Experience : 9th season

High School : Bellville HS [TX]









The Perception:

As John Elway and the Denver Broncos look to remove the unpleasant smell of last season’s offensive production, Emmanuel Sanders will again receive his opportunity to become an extremely high contributor. The cliché is always the same when discussing players that’ve had an off-year, suggesting they have lost a step and/or they aren’t the player they once were. Emmanuel Sanders is floating in that same territory of discussion whenever the Denver Broncos offense is brought up in conversations with colleagues regrading current year perceptions. We for one aren’t buying into that observation and see Sanders as a prime candidate to rebound in 2018.





Last season was one of the worst campaigns witnessed for Sanders since his days in Pittsburgh (2010-2012) where he played a complementary role to Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown being the third or fourth receiving option on the team. While Sanders has proven his worth many times over since signing with the Broncos back in 2014, some will continue to argue that his great statistical performances were in direct correlation in playing with the future hall of famer in Peyton Manning. Recognizing that it’s impossible to deny that Manning did in fact lift Sanders to career highs in literally every receiving category, Emmanuel was able to add credence to his craft going over 1000 yards with 79 receptions in the 2016 season post Peyton Manning, quite the successful year if you ask me.





Last season started with great hope and finished in utter demise as the Broncos couldn’t seem to figure out the opposition on a weekly basis. Feeling the effects of underwhelming quarterback play, Emmanuel Sanders was the unfortunate recipient of virtually career low statistics and injury inflictions. Over the course of his career, Sanders has remained relatively healthy missing only thirteen contests in eight years, four of which came from last season. With the tribulation that came to pass, Sanders finished the 2017 season with 47 receptions for 555 yards and 2 touchdowns in 12 games played - a far cry from great numbers just two seasons removed. Some evaluators will base their next year projections solely on statistics unfairly devaluing a player that still has good ability to produce on the field. Adding to those perceptions, Sanders has always fought the argument of size and weight being an issue, while adding a potential of injury concerns to his resume doesn’t bode well for the overall outcome from the masses. Are we beginning to see a trend to how Sanders is publicly viewed, outside of Denver that is.





The Reality:

As the offseason took shape, John Elway tried his best to recruit Kirk Cousins to the Mile High city using a similar formula when persuading the great Peyton Manning to join the club, this time without the same outcome. Perhaps a blessing in disguise came from their unfulfilled pursuit of Cousins, as the Broncos landed NFL journeyman quarterback Case Keenum to steer the ship at a much lower price. By all accounts we aren’t placing Keenum in the same conversation as Cousins for the upcoming season, but the overall skillset that seems to be active in Case, as he matures, could become quite the bargain if the team finds their way to the post season. While the Vikings were forced to lean on Keenum when Sam Bradford went down, the Broncos will have an entire training camp to install new systems allowing Sanders and company to gain chemistry aiding in the correction of last year’s anemic pass game.





Like any squad looking to be dominant in specific facet of the game, Denver’s offensive line remains their achilles heel, but Keenum along with a solid run attack should create opportunities for Emmanuel to get open via play action and designed receiver screen plays which worked to perfection with Peyton Manning. A statistic that gives favor in projecting potential success for the Broncos comes to form with Case Keenum’s accuracy from last season (67.6%). If that mark can be replicated or improved upon, Sanders should be able to enhance his catch rate which stands at a modest 58% career average, only inflating his numbers further. While Emmanuel saw his completion rate fall to the lowest levels of his career last season, it’s our contention that all the blame wasn’t solely on his hands (pun intended). Though Sanders has struggled with dropped passes from time to time, far too often last season passes were off target making it extremely difficult to catch, dropping his catch rate in the process.





Entering his ninth season in the NFL at the ripe age of 31 years, Sanders has a great opportunity to showcase those productive levels as no real indication of speed or acceleration decline was witnessed. The struggles from a revolving door of quarterbacks (Siemian, Osweiler, and Lynch) last season, was the obvious conclusion leaving Sanders in a dim light among those providing endorsements for the upcoming campaign. ADF will stand firm in our belief that Sanders will find a way to overcome back to levels we’ve grown accustomed too.





The Outlook:

While the Denver Broncos look to regain the success they’ve had in past seasons, Emmanuel Sanders will have to be an enormous part of bringing them back to life. As the Broncos still employ a defense that could rival the best in the league, that assistance should provide ample opportunity for the offense to get the ball in their hands during the course of a game. In the last five seasons, Sanders has piled up a whopping 619 targets averaging a very healthy 123.8 targets per year. It’s extremely clear that last season was the anomaly as spotty quarterback play limited this target machine to fewer than 100 targets (92) for the first time since 2012. While we reserve the right to adjust our assessment on Case Keenum as the season progresses, there’s nothing to suggest the Broncos won’t get back on track to at least be very competitive in the upcoming campaign, with Sanders being a large part of that success.



