Dead to Me: Emmanuel Sanders

The shovel is back! My favorite article series returns once again. If you don’t already know, I figuratively bury fantasy players and their redraft stock. You can find all my previous work in this series at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, the grim reaper has come for Emmanuel Sanders. He’s had a great career, but his time is up.

Also, to jump out in front of the potential backlash, I want to make sure you don’t hear what I’m not saying in this article. Sanders was an exceptional real-life and fantasy wide receiver for many years. He had a stellar NFL career and deserves nothing but praise for his perseverance. 

However, as a fantasy option, he’s done. As fantasy football owners, we need to look forward, not backward, when making fantasy decisions. Luckily, as part of my job creating content, I get to look back on the career of a great receiver. With that out of the way, let’s jump into Sanders and his past performance.

Career Snapshot

Here are Sanders’ full NFL stats.

2010-2012: The Beginning

The Steelers selected Sanders in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft. At the time, they had Mike Wallace and Hines Ward as their clear top two receivers with Heath Miller as a solid receiving tight end. Sanders got little playing time as a rookie, and he certainly wasn’t on the redraft radar.

In 2011, the Steelers returned an almost identical offense with Wallace, Ward, and Miller back for another season. However, Ward started to decline as a receiver, allowing room for a 2010 rookie to emerge. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Sanders, as the Steelers had selected Antonio Brown in the sixth round of the same 2010 class. Brown became the top receiver on the Steelers, forming a solid duo with Wallace. Once again, Sanders was utterly irrelevant.

After 2011, the Steelers finally parted ways with Ward, but Wallace, Miller, and Brown served as the Steelers’ clear top three receiving options for the 2012 season. Each had over 100 targets, leaving little room for other players. Sanders did become the definite fourth option with 75 targets, though, as nobody else had more than 27 targets. 

Even in a Ben Roethlisberger-led offense, Sanders as the fourth option wasn’t fantasy-relevant. Also, Sanders wasn’t anything special on the targets he did receive, catching only 58.7% of them and recording only one touchdown on the season. At this stage in his career, Sanders was an afterthought, since he’d never been more than a depth option through three seasons and hadn’t been great in his role.

2013: Rise to Relevance

Typical for the Steelers’ front office, they decided to let Wallace walk in free agency after his rookie contract expired in 2012, leaving Brown as the undisputed top option in the offense. Brown had a massive season, with 110 receptions on 167 targets for 1,499 yards and eight touchdowns, cementing his place at the top of the mountain.

Behind Brown, Sanders and Miller were the next most-relevant receiving options. Sanders finally found a bit of fantasy relevance, as he finished as a WR3 in 2013. He had the second-most yards, targets, and receptions on the Steelers, although Jerricho Cotchery bizarrely led the team with 10 touchdowns. 

However, after 2013, Sanders’ rookie contract had run out, and the Steelers felt that he was surplus to requirements. The team no longer required Sanders’ receiving services between Brown, Miller, and rookie breakout running back Le’Veon Bell. They didn’t try to retain him in free agency, and he was a middle-level target on that year’s market.

2014: Stardom

Eventually, the Broncos decided to take a chance on Sanders, signing him to a 3-year, $15 million contract with $6 million guaranteed. At the time, the Broncos had star quarterback Peyton Manning near the back-end of his career, and they needed to find a replacement for Eric Decker. Demaryius Thomas was the entrenched top receiver, with Wes Welker in the slot and Julius Thomas at tight end.

Even though Thomas was still the top receiver in 2014, Sanders flourished in Manning’s offense. Thomas and Sanders combined for over 3,000 receiving yards, and they finished as the WR2 and WR5, respectively. Considering that Sanders hadn’t shown anywhere near this type of upside, his fifth-year breakout came somewhat out of nowhere. Sanders won fantasy owners leagues in 2014.

2015-2018: Relatively Consistent Production

Unfortunately, Sanders never returned to his 2014 production. Manning fell off a cliff in 2015, losing his job to Brock Osweiler throughout the season. While Sanders had a similar volume, his efficiency plummeted. Both Thomas and Sanders suffered from Manning and Osweiler’s horrible play, although they still managed to finish as the WR11 and WR19.

In 2016, Trevor Siemian won the Broncos’ starting quarterback job, replacing Manning and Osweiler and beating out first-round rookie Paxton Lynch. Siemian was serviceable, but he duplicated the Broncos’ 2015 output. Once again, Thomas led the way, slightly outperforming Sanders. Both receivers were usable, but neither were stars.

However, in 2017, the wheels started to come off. The Broncos brought back Osweiler to compete with Siemian, and all three of Siemian, Osweiler, and Lynch started some games. Both Thomas and Sanders suffered under this quarterback committee, although Sanders was far worse. He averaged a career-low 6.0 yards/target and 51.1% catch rate. Sanders did struggle through an ankle injury, but he wasn’t good even when healthy.

After 2017, most analysts had written Sanders off entirely. Thomas had outperformed him every season they’d played together, and the Broncos drafted Courtland Sutton in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft. However, suddenly, Sanders revived his career. 

The Broncos replaced their previous quarterback committee with Case Keenum, who improved the team’s offense. Through the first eight weeks, Sanders claimed the top receiver spot away from Thomas. Sanders averaged 18.7 PPR points/game, compared to 11.8 for Thomas, Sanders’ performance was 10th-best among receivers during that period, the best stretch of his career since 2014. 

Even after the Broncos traded Thomas to the Texans, Sanders continued to form a strong duo with Sutton, although his numbers significantly declined. However, disaster struck in practice when Sanders tore his Achilles tendon. He missed the rest of the 2018 season, and I believed that his career was over. Most receivers never return from an Achilles tear, especially not those near the end of their time in the NFL.

2019: The Fall

Despite the odds, Sanders proved me wrong. He returned for the Broncos and played well with new quarterback Joe Flacco, although he wasn’t a fantasy force. Sutton overtook him as the team’s top receiver, eventually leading to Sanders’ trade to the 49ers. 

Bizarrely, Sanders managed to play 17 games in 2019, due to the timing of bye weeks. Even so, he only finished as the WR30 and was only 44th in fantasy PPG. He was more useful to the real-life 49ers than to fantasy owners.

The Future and Beyond

Sanders’ contract was up after the 2019 season, making him a free agent for the first time since 2014. He signed a 2-year, $24 million deal with $10 million guaranteed with the Saints, pairing him with Drew Brees for a potential championship run. Like his 2019 performance, I expect Sanders to provide value to the Saints, although I don’t think he’ll be usable in fantasy leagues.

I wrote about how Jared Cook was “Dead to Me” before, and it’s a similar argument for Sanders. As I broke down in my Saints redraft preview, they will funnel their offense through Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas, leaving little room for other fantasy producers. Also, Sanders has only shown massive fantasy upside twice in his career, in 2014, and for that short stretch in 2018. 

Sanders wasn’t the same player in 2019 after returning from his Achilles tear, and I can’t imagine that he’ll improve at 33 years old. Therefore, I believe that Sanders has no upside in 2020, and he’s my WR62. I would far prefer to take a gamble on someone like Michael Pittman Jr., N’Keal Harry, or Mecole Hardman, bypassing Sanders’ non-existent ceiling.

Thanks for reading this article. You can find me on Twitter at @DFF_Karp. I love to interact with anyone in the community, so reach out at any time! I take fantasy questions and help with all formats, so keep sending those questions my way.

Previous Dead to Me Articles: Dead to Me: The Original, Aaron Rodgers, Sony Michel, Tevin Coleman, Marlon Mack, Kerryon Johnson, Jared Cook, Curtis Samuel