There’s no guessing why Emmanuel Sanders signed with the Buffalo Bills in free agency this offseason.
The two-time Pro Bowler came to Orchard Park so he could win a Super Bowl.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen shared Sanders’ goal in a recent conference call with the Buffalo media during last week's mandatory minicamp. He revealed what Sanders told his teammates when he first walked into the locker room.
“He got the chance to talk to the team this morning. He got to share his story,” Allen told reporters last Tuesday. “But the thing that he said that stuck with me, was, ‘My first year, I went to the Super Bowl and I’ve been chasing it ever since.’ He’s been to three, he’s won one. But he wants another one.”
Sanders has been the Forrest Gump of the NFL over the last 12 years, meaning he’s been part of multiple winning teams and Super Bowl contenders. As Allen mentioned, Sanders started his career with the 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers, who lost a heartbreaker to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLIII. Four years later, he signed on with the Denver Broncos to play with Peyton Manning, putting up a career-high 101 receptions in his first season. The Broncos won the Super Bowl in 2015.
In the latter half of his career, Sanders has taken on a mercenary status. He played with the San Francisco 49ers for half of the 2019 campaign, once again appearing in the Super Bowl. Last season, he inked up with the New Orleans Saints and got to catch passes from future Hall of Famer, Drew Brees.
Sanders has gone from Ben Roethlisberger to Manning to Jimmy Garoppolo to Brees, and now, to Allen. That’s not too shabby.
When Sanders inked his one-year, $6 million deal with the Bills, he said he admired their offense from afar.
“I used to sit on my off days on a Tuesday, I’d grab my iPad, and I would watch the Buffalo Bills, the coach’s film, and just the routes they were running,” he said during his introductory conference call back in March.
Sean McDermott, meanwhile, has also been open about the team’s interest in Sanders. He’s admitted they were tracking Sanders for "a couple of years."
So far, Sanders seems to be fitting in just fine with Allen. They’ve already seemingly built a strong rapport.
At 34-years-old, Sanders can’t afford to waste time. He’s coming off the worst statistical season of his career (61 catches, 726 yards, five touchdowns), and hoping for a rebound in Buffalo.
We know exactly what he wants to do at the end of a potential renaissance season in 2021: hoist the Lombardi Trophy once again.