Emmanuel Sanders

Broncos, Emmanuel Sanders Agree To Extension

September 7th, 2016 at 5:26pm CST by Sam Robinson

On the night before their Super Bowl title defense commences, the Broncos reached an agreement to keep Emmanuel Sanders in Denver through 2019. John Elway tweets the team agreed to a three-year extension with its No. 2 wide receiver, making Sanders the latest such recipient of a deal during a summer that’s seen a clear market emerge for players of this caliber.

It’s a $33MM deal for Sanders, according to Mike Klis of 9News (on Twitter) and he will receive $27MM in guaranteed money, says Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Sanders will take up $5.6MM of the Broncos’ cap in the final year of his existing deal before the extension begins in 2017.

Sanders’ deal continues an extensive fortification of the Broncos’ Super Bowl nucleus. Denver followed up its extension for Von Miller by keeping its top two impending free agents off the 2017 market by agreeing to terms with Sanders and Brandon Marshall. The Broncos also retained C.J. Anderson after matching his RFA offer.

The sides had a clear road map to an agreement after the respective extensions the Jaguars, Chargers, Seahawks and Rams doled out for Allen Hurns, Keenan Allen, Doug Baldwin and Tavon Austin. The 29-year-old Sanders won’t receive a four-year commitment like his younger peers, who signed for between $10-$11.5MM AAV, but this move keeps the Broncos’ high-end receiving tandem intact for the remainder of the decade.

The agreement will also make the Broncos’ potential 2017 free agent exodus lighter than what’s transpired the past two offseasons, ones that featured the likes of Malik Jackson, Brock Osweiler, Danny Trevathan, Orlando Franklin and former No. 2 target Eric Decker depart for better offers. With the exception of Jackson and Osweiler, the Broncos did not put up big battles to retain the many players who left. They took a different route with Sanders and Marshall.

Sanders has notched the first two 1,000-yard seasons of his six-year career during his time in Denver, which began in 2014 with a three-year, $15MM commitment. He cleared 1,400 yards in 2014, catching 101 passes and scoring nine touchdowns. Last season, he became Peyton Manning‘s top target in the playoffs, hauling in 16 passes for 230 yards in the Broncos’ three postseason games.

This marks the second straight summer the Broncos agreed to an extension with a wideout, with Demaryius Thomas now on the books via five-year, $70MM extension. Coupled with the money Sanders will receive going forward, the Broncos now have one of the highest receiver payrolls in football, joining the Packers, Jets and Redskins. Denver is now the only team set to pay two wideouts $10MM+ AAV, surpassing Green Bay, which has Randall Cobb and Jordy Nelson on the books for $10MM and $9.7MM per year, respectively.

A lack of a franchise-quarterback salary aided the team’s ability to retain free agents this year, and this likely gives No. 1 pick Paxton Lynch a better chance to potentially earn a big deal himself down the line thanks to the Broncos retaining Manning’s weaponry now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Emmanuel Sanders

September 6th, 2016 at 8:13pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Negotiations between the Broncos and contract-year wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders appear to gaining traction, as multiple sources tell Mike Klis of 9NEWS that the two parties ” are not far apart in terms of average salary.” However, there is a disagreement over the guarantees and the structure of the contract, according to Klis.

The issue sounds similar to what the Broncos experienced when negotiating with star edge rusher Von Miller, as though the two sides in that scenario had largely agreed on the framework of a contract, details had to be hammered out. General manager John Elway over the weekend pointed to Tavon Austin‘s four-year, $42MM extension with the Rams as a potential baseline, and that deal contained $17MM in full guarantees.

As Klis points out, however, the pacts recently signed by Austin, Allen Hurns, Keenan Allen, and Doug Baldwin aren’t perfectly analogous to Sanders’ situations. Each of those other pass-catchers was between the age of 24 and 27 when he signed on the dotted line, while Sanders will turn 30 in March.

In two seasons in Denver, Sanders has hauled in 177 receptions, 2,500-plus yards and 15 touchdowns in 31 games. In addition to his regular-season prowess, Sanders piled up 16 catches for 230 yards in three games during the Broncos’ run to the Super Bowl last winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

AFC Notes: Forsett, Ravens, Patriots, Broncos

September 3rd, 2016 at 8:24pm CST by Zachary Links

The Ravens could soon re-sign running back Justin Forsett, according to Jeff Zriebec of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter link), who expects the transaction to happen “sooner rather than later.” Forsett, 30, was released earlier today, and the Ravens $3MM by doing cutting ties. But if the club can get him back at a reduced rate, it sounds like a reunion might be in the best interests of both parties.

AFC Notes: Patriots, Broncos, Woodhead

August 28th, 2016 at 11:30am CST by Rory Parks

The Patriots signed Terrance Knighton to a one-year, $4.5MM deal this offseason to serve as a key cog in the interior of the club’s defensive front, but now Pot Roast is in danger of being cut, as Kevin Duffy of MassLive.com writes. Knighton struggled in the team’s second preseason game against Chicago, and he did not log a single defensive snap during New England’s third preseason contest against Carolina on Friday night.

Knighton, who insisted that he is completely healthy, expressed his frustration afterwards. He said, “It’s disappointing just because, you know, I’ve played a lot of ball in this league, seen a lot of things. I’m not going to make too much of it. It is what it is. Whatever happens, happens. If I’m here, I’m here. If I’m not, I’m not. I’m just taking it a day at a time.”

If Knighton does indeed receive his walking papers, he should be able to find work with a club looking for a dependable and durable run-stuffer.

Now for some more notes from the AFC:

It’s looking more and more like Patriots WR Danny Amendola will stay on the PUP list and miss at least the first six games of the regular season, according to Ben Volin of The Boston Globe.
The Patriots had assigned rookie corner Cyrus Jones the same grade as several other players who were still available when the club was set to make its first draft pick (No. 60 overall) this year. As Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes, the team selected Jones because of his dynamic return ability, which he demonstrated in a big way with a 60-yard punt return Friday night. Reiss points out that Jones taking over the role could help preserve 30-year old returners Julian Edelman and Amendola from taking additional pounding.
Trevor Siemian likely cemented his status as the Broncos‘ starting quarterback after turning in a solid performance during last night’s preseason victory over Los Angeles, Mike Klis of 9News.com writes. At this point Klis would be surprised if the Broncos didn’t release Mark Sanchez, a move that would save the team $4.5MM and a seventh-round pick.
Troy Renck of Denver7 believes that Tavon Austin‘s new four-year, $42MM deal with Los Angeles will set the floor in Emmanuel Sanders‘ contract negotiations with the Broncos (Twitter link). As Renck observes, Sanders is older than Austin, but his production level has thus far been superior.
Danny Woodhead is entering the final year of the two-year extension he signed with the Chargers in 2014, and he would like to remain with the club long-term, as Michael Gehlken of The San Diego Union-Tribune writes. However, contract talks between team and player prior to training camp were unproductive, with the Chargers determining it was not in position to extend Woodhead for a variety of cited factors, including cash committed to other contracts this year. Woodhead, though, will not publicly comment on his contract situation, and simply indicated a desire to focus on the 2016 season.

AFC Notes: Steelers, Bell, Broncos, Fins

July 28th, 2016 at 8:59pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell plans to appeal his four-game suspension for a violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy “sometime in August,” he told reporters Thursday (via Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com). Bell added that the league notified him of his suspension in March after he missed a drug test. Although appealing the suspension will disrupt Bell’s rehab from the torn MCL and PCL he suffered last season, the 24-year-old is confident he’ll be ready for Week 1 if he’s eligible to play. And Bell expects his appeal to be victorious. “I’m gonna win the appeal,” he said, per Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review. “(People) have no idea what happened.”

Contract-Year Rumors: Brees, Short, Berry

July 27th, 2016 at 9:01pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Saints general manager Mickey Loomis confirmed Wednesday that the team and contract-year quarterback Drew Brees have not made any progress toward a long-term deal, though Loomis added that he’s open to discussions, according to Mike Triplett of ESPN.com. Brees revealed last week that the two sides last exchanged offers in March. The 37-year-old future Hall of Famer is set to count an NFL-leading $30MM against the Saints’ cap this year, and he’ll also rake in the league’s second-highest QB salary ($19.75MM).

If the Saints don’t sign Brees by the start of the regular season, which is the deadline the 16th-year man has set, retaining him in the offseason could be difficult. Because Brees has already been a franchise-tag recipient twice, it would cost the Saints $43.2MM to tag him in 2017, notes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. With the tag an unlikely option, free agency will become a realistic route for Brees to take if he and the Saints don’t work something out over the next several weeks.

More of the latest regarding high-profile players with unsettled contract situations:

Unlike New Orleans and Brees, the NFC South rival Panthers and defensive tackle Kawann Short are engaged in extension talks, GM Dave Gettleman said Wednesday (via David Newton of ESPN.com). Short has expressed dissatisfaction this offseason with his current deal, one that will pay him just over $1MM in base salary in 2016, after he led the Panthers in sacks and forced fumbles last year, and ranked eighth among 123 qualifying interior defenders at Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Fellow D-line standouts like Fletcher Cox and Muhammad Wilkerson have scored sizable deals in recent weeks, and it’s fair to say the 27-year-old Short could look to those pacts as comparables for his next contract. However, while Cox and Wilkerson will average upward of $17MM a year, Gettleman wasn’t willing to go much higher than $15MM per year as of earlier this month.
Unhappy with his current status, Chiefs safety Eric Berry is set to skip most or all of the preseason, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star). Doing that won’t increase the leverage of Berry, whose only options are to sign his $10.8MM franchise tender at some point or continue sitting out. The Chiefs failed to sign the four-time Pro Bowler to a multiyear deal by the July 15 deadline for tag recipients, meaning the two won’t be able to negotiate again until the end of the season. Because Berry isn’t under contract, he’d be able to avoid showing up for of camp and the preseason without facing fines from the Chiefs. Indeed, the 27-year-old looks primed to take advantage of that.
The Broncos and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders remain in discussions about a new deal, GM John Elway stated Wednesday (Twitter link via Troy Renck of Denver7). The reigning Super Bowl champions would like to lock Sanders up before the season, according to Elway, who said in June that extending Sanders and two of his teammates – linebackers Von Miller and Brandon Marshall – by mid-July would be “ideal.” Denver has since secured Miller and Marshall, leaving the 29-year-old Sanders as the lone straggler of the group.
In the biggest news of the day, the Jets and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick finally ended their squabble over a contract.

Von Miller Rumors: Tuesday

July 12th, 2016 at 12:17pm CST by Zachary Links

Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe was diplomatic in his interview with SiriusXM on Tuesday, but one might infer that he’s not thrilled with Von Miller and his standoff with the team.

“Business is business, and that’s his business. And he has to do what he’s gotta do,” Wolfe said regarding Miller’s contract situation (transcription via PFT). “Obviously, I took a different route and decided that this is where I want to be so I’m going to take a significant haircut to stay here, and that’s fine with me. But some people don’t feel that way.”

Back in January, Wolfe and the Broncos agreed to a four-year, $36.75MM extension with $12MM fully guaranteed. Had Wolfe tested the open market, he likely could have bested those numbers. While Wolfe was comfortable signing a team-friendly pact to stay in Denver, Miller is determined to get what he perceives as fair value. From my perspective, it’s hard to fault the Super Bowl 50 MVP for standing his ground.

Here’s the latest on the Broncos and Miller:

Even though it may be an attractive Plan B, the Broncos are not thinking about the possibility of trading Von Miller this week, Mike Klis of KUSA writes. In theory, the Broncos could trade Miller before the Friday deadline, allowing the team acquiring Miller to sign him to a multi-year deal. After the Friday deadline, Miller’s trade value takes a significant nosedive as he would be ticketed for the open market. Even though a Miller trade sounds like a reasonable fallback option, it doesn’t sound likely at this time.
At this point, the Broncos are confident that they’ll get a deal done by Friday, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link). Echoing Klis’ report, Cole says that the idea of a trade has only come up “in passing” between the Broncos and Miller’s camp.
Multiple teammates have expressed confidence this week that Miller will sign a long-term deal, Troy Renck of The Denver Post writes. Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who is also working on a new contract with Denver, said he understood why his contract talks were on pause because “all of the focus should be on Von right now.”

Extra Points: Cousins, Broncos, Texans

July 10th, 2016 at 12:31pm CST by Rory Parks

Rich Tandler of CSNWashington.com is fully aware of the recent report indicating that Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins will not sign a long-term deal with Washington prior to the July 15 deadline, which means that he will play the 2016 season under the franchise tag. However, Tandler is not ruling out the possibility of a multi-year contract just yet. As he observes, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who reported that the Cousins-Redskins impasse would not be resolved this week, said more or less the same thing about the Demaryius Thomas negotiations last year, only to see Thomas sign a five-year contract with Denver right before the deadline.

Florio, though, is not the only one to report that Cousins would play out the 2016 season on his franchise tender. ESPN’s Adam Schefter, for instance, has said the same thing for at least a month. But as Tandler notes, deadlines drive deals, and both Cousins and the Redskins still have plenty of incentive to get a deal done in the next couple of days.

Now let’s take a look at a few more notes from around the league, beginning with another franchise-tagged player:

Jason Cole of Bleacher Report has a non-update update on Von Miller, tweeting that there is no news of any kind to pass along on the negotiations between the Broncos star and the club today. Mike Klis of 9News.com, though, reports that there is a reason for that lack of news. Klis says that the two parties are expected to think about where they are in negotiations today, but not necessarily talk about it. Talks are expected to resume tomorrow, as neither side wants to jeopardize the progress that has been made in recent days.
We heard several days ago that contract talks between the Broncos and wideout Emmanuel Sanders have been put on hold, and Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post opines that although Sanders deserves top dollar, he will probably have to leave Denver as a free agent after the 2016 season to find it. As Kiszla writes, the Broncos’ way of doing business doesn’t seem to be quite as generous now that Pat Bowlen is no longer in charge of day-to-day operations.
Andrew Mason of DenverBroncos.com looks at how the Broncos might go about replacing Malik Jackson, and Mason writes that the Broncos will likely turn to a committee approach, with Vance Walker at the head of the committee.
Texans superstar J.J. Watt‘s six-year, $100MM deal was “handled perfectly” in 2014, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com writes. Fitzgerald goes on to explain how Houston got away with “highway robbery” in that contract, perhaps exploiting Watt’s desire to be a $100MM player to gain a favorable contractual structure. As such, Fitzgerald believes Watt’s deal is the best one on the Texans’ books, whereas new quarterback Brock Osweiler‘s much-ballyhooed contract is the worst.

Talks On Hold Between Broncos, E. Sanders

July 7th, 2016 at 8:20am CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Broncos and contract-year wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders had been negotiating a new accord since at least early June – with the two sides exchanging figures on a deal under three weeks ago – but talks are now on hold, reports Mike Klis of 9News.

As of last month, Sanders expressed a desire to retire a Bronco. The 29-year-old has so far only spent two seasons in Denver, where he has hauled in 177 receptions, 2,500-plus yards and 15 touchdowns in 31 games. In addition to his regular-season prowess, Sanders piled up 16 catches for 230 yards in three games during the Broncos’ run to the Super Bowl last winter.

Sanders originally joined the Broncos on a three-year, $15MM deal after four seasons with the Steelers. It’s fair to say his next contract will be much more valuable. Three of Sanders’ fellow wideouts – the Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin, the Chargers’ Keenan Allen and the Jaguars’ Allen Hurns – signed four-year extensions worth upward of $40MM, including $20MM-plus in guarantees, last month. While Sanders is at least two years older than each of them, he has outproduced the trio and topped them in approximate value since 2014.

General manager John Elway said a month ago that extending Sanders by mid-July would be “ideal,” but it now appears the Broncos could fall short of that goal. Of course, Elway has a higher priority – linebacker Von Miller – whom he must sign by July 15. The team’s franchise player will otherwise be unable to ink an extension until the offseason (and could sit out the season), so there should be more urgency to get a deal done with Miller than Sanders.

For now, Sanders remains on track to play out this season on a $5.6MM salary and hit free agency. However, given the seventh-year man’s stated desire to remain in Denver and the organization’s goal to retain him, odds are the two will work something out. It just might not happen as quickly as planned.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Extra Points: Sanders, Bucs, Marijuana

July 4th, 2016 at 9:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

In a string of tweets themed around Kevin Durant’s landmark defection to the Warriors, Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders addressed some of his own contract issues. The seventh-year wideout responded to a follower’s query about his status with the defending champions and professed his desire to stay in Denver (Twitter link) unless the Broncos determine they don’t want him after his contract year.

Sanders, who is set to count $6.6MM against Denver’s cap this season, observed the second-tier receiving market clear up before him after Allen Hurns, Keenan Allen and Doug Baldwin agreed to deals in June — each for between $10MM and $11.5MM per year. While the 29-year-old Sanders has shown superior production to those talents since coming to Colorado, he’s also nearly two years older than Baldwin and several years older than the former duo.

The former Steelers draft choice also attempted to clear up a matter from his past free agency foray. The Chiefs were reported to have struck a deal with Sanders in March of 2014 only to see the wideout then sign with their archrivals. Sanders tweeted the deal was indeed close to occurring, with incentives having loomed as a sticking point. He went on to record a 1,400-yard season in Peyton Manning‘s final productive year before following that up with an 1,100-yard slate in 2015 to vault him into position to possibly earn an eight-figure-AAV contract.

Here’s the latest from around the league.

The Buccaneers reuniting Mike Smith with Dirk Koetter is one of the reasons Tampa Bay fans should be excited about the season, Roy Cummings of Today’s Pigskin writes. Smith will be tailoring a more versatile scheme around the players’ strengths, Cummings writes, as the Bucs move away from Lovie Smith‘s preferred Tampa-2 scheme. Koetter worked as the Falcons’ OC under Smith from 2012-14. Smith spent last season out of football.
Former Broncos and Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer wrote TheMMQB.com’s Monday Morning Quarterback column published earlier today and outlined his push for the NFL to consider a form of medical marijuana to help players deal with pain. More specifically, Plummer is advocating for the league to get behind a compound derived from marijuana called Charlotte’s Web, a hemp extract high in CBD, which the former 10-year veteran describes as a “non-addictive, non-psychoactive naturally occurring in cannabis.”
Under the current CBA, such use of this compound would violate the league’s substance-abuse policy, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk points out. A move in this direction, also advocated by Eugene Monroe and Derrick Morgan, would require action on the NFLPA’s part. Unlike the year-round random PED testing, the NFL mandates a drug test at a point between April and August for players not in the league’s drug program. Florio points out that use of these products outside of this window provides a way for players not to fail tests, barring marijuana-related arrests. For a medicinal marijuana policy to emerge, Florio writes the owners may ask the union to make a trade at the bargaining table, given the sides’ acrimony on numerous issues.
The Giants insisting on keeping Ereck Flowers at left tackle has turned off some potential tackle options in free agency.

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