Last season was tough on everyone involved with the Denver Broncos, but continual tumult pushed Emmanuel Sanders to the brink.

“It was bad,” he said in May, as noted by The Athletic's Nicki Jhabvala. “There were some games and I was like, ‘What am I doing to myself? Do I even like football anymore?’ Because it was a battle within myself mentally and just trying to go out there and make plays. Just putting it all out on the line, it was tough.”

Doubting your love of the game is just about the worst thing a player can do. It usually precedes retirement or an aggressive push for a change of scenery -- anything to reset one's psyche following a particularly scarring year.

For Sanders, it doesn't get more scarring than 2017. The Broncos changed offensive coordinators midseason, tried three different lackluster quarterbacks, and finished with a 5-11 record, underscored by a miserable eight-game losing streak. Adding injury to insult, Sanders dealt with an ankle injury that limited him to 12 appearances and his lowest output (555 receiving yards) since 2011.

Team-wide failures were more disconcerting than personal accomplishments, though they go hand-in-hand.

“If you combine both of them (the quarterbacks and coordinators), that screams out bright, bright red,” he said, via Jhabvala. “Big red flags.”

Whispers of Sanders' departure grew louder in the weeks after the campaign mercifully concluded. His $10.937 million cap number made him a prime release candidate, an outcome that seemed inevitable. Surprisingly, however, general manager John Elway opted to retain both Sanders and fellow highly-paid wideout Demaryius Thomas, keeping the dynamic duo in place for new starting QB Case Keenum.

This commitment, combined with the arrival of an accomplished Keenum, appears to have reinvigorated Sanders, who's hunkered down in Denver rather than return to his offseason home in Houston. He's among several Broncos pass-catchers joining Keenum at Regis Jesuit High School, where chemistry is being built by way of throwing sessions.

“I figure I’d have a laser-sharp focus,” he said. “I go back to Houston and it’s a lot of chaos. I have to move my clothes, move my cars. It’s a lot of unnecessary things that I’m just trying to get out of the way and focus on the season.”

The caveat, though, is Sanders still sees writing scribbled on the wall.

There are several factors working against him -- including age (31), salary ($10.15 million in 2019) and presence of future successor (rookie WRs Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton) -- which could mean his time in Broncos orange is coming to a close. He's been around long enough to know NFL truly stands for "Not For Long."

And that 2018 is essentially an audition for 31 other teams.

“Even prior to them signing those young guys, even when I signed the contract … only two years are guaranteed and after that it’s year-to-year,” Sanders said. “You play long enough and you start understanding these contracts are not guaranteed. And, truthfully, for everybody, including Von Miller, it’s year-to-year, because who knows what might happen? Who knows what situation might play out?

“I always play like that, like it’s always year-to-year. I got something to prove this year and if I don’t prove it to the Broncos, then I’ll be proving it to some other team. But at the end of the day, God willing, I stay healthy, I’ll be in the NFL next year as well. That’s the goal. I don’t worry about what team. I’m working for the Denver Broncos this year and I’m going to do my best to try to bring a Super Bowl (trophy) to this city.”