Emmanuel Sanders is fitting in quite nicely, thank you very much.
The Buffalo Bills’ veteran receiver is showing why General Manager Brandon Beane pursued him for so long before eventually signing him to a one-year contract this offseason.
Sanders finished with five catches for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Bills’ 43-21 win over the Washington Football Team on Sunday at Highmark Stadium.
Sanders opened the scoring with a 28-yard touchdown catch less than 5 minutes into the first quarter, then got into the end zone again with 4:43 left in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. The 12th-year veteran now has 11 catches for 194 yards in his first three games. That yardage total is tied with Cole Beasley for the team lead. Sanders and Beasley were teammates in college at SMU more than a decade ago.
“When they told me in the offseason that they were going to go after him, I already knew it was a good fit without seeing him with our offense, just because I’ve been with the guy before,” Beasley said of Sanders, 34. “I know how he works and he’s still one of the hardest practice players on our team, even at 34. It’s just fun to watch him and he’s been doing it for a long time. It’s fun to watch a veteran guy go to work and that’s an example of leading for the other guys as well.”
Josh Allen talks about the Buffalo Bills' performance in their 43-21 win over the Washington Football Team
Sanders was also familiar to Bills safety Micah Hyde, albeit for a different reason.
“We’ve played him in the past when he’s played on different teams, and watching film, he’s a dog,” Hyde said. “He’s going to go out there and give his best. He’s going to block if he has to, catch, he’s going to do whatever for the team. So we know and love that. It was good to see him go out there and get a couple ‘tuddies,’ but there’s a lot of guys like that on this team. You heard it earlier this week – he doesn’t care about nothing else but winning a Super Bowl, and that’s why we love him. He’s going to bring it every day and make us better.”
Sanders was signed after the Bills released John Brown during the offseason. Brown had been a quality receiver during his two years with the Bills, but dealt with some injuries in 2020. The move is looking more and more like a smart one by Beane. Brown signed with the Raiders, but asked for his release before the start of the regular season, which was granted. He’s still a free agent.
Sanders, meanwhile, has fit right in. He’s firmly one of the Bills’ top three receivers, in playing time and statistics. He’s a bigger receiver than Brown, though both are listed at 5-foot-11, and has shown in each of the last two games he still has the speed to get open deep down the field.
Allen became the 11th quarterback to throw a touchdown pass to Sanders.
“It feels good. Obviously for me, this is my third organization in three years,” Sanders said. “The thing is, you’ve got to prove yourself all the time. When I was in Denver, the fans knew what I could do. To come to this fan base and prove myself, show everybody what I can do, it feels good. And I think it’s just a testament, at nighttime I’m going to close my eyes and go to sleep, it’s all the hard work that I put in.
“I mean, everybody sees the touchdowns and the catches, but they don’t see me limping through the house at 4 in the morning to go and use the bathroom and stuff like that. So, it’s just a testament to all the hard work and the perseverance that you go through to try and get a win on Sundays.”
Leading up to the game against Washington, Sanders spoke of his chemistry with quarterback Josh Allen, putting it at an eight on a scale of one to 10.
Asked where it landed after Sunday’s performance, when he caught five of six targets, Sanders said it was “10 out of 10.”
Sanders’ selflessness has perhaps most impressed his teammates through the first three weeks. It was telling when he called Devin Singletary’s 46-yard touchdown run against Miami one of the favorite plays of his career. Sanders threw a key block on that play.
“A guy that just constantly does what he's asked in the run game and the pass game,” Allen said. “When you're putting yourself in a good position and running your tail off and blocking downfield, opportunities like that or are going to be thrown your way. And typically you're going to make those plays because, you know, he's a vet in this league. He does everything right.
“He’s got juice. He's been great for me. I know he's been great for the other guys in this locker room. And to have that guy who's been there and done it and won the whole thing, to have his presence, I think that's huge for us. And it's only going to continue to get better.”
