Stefon Diggs was putting in some groundwork prior to the Bills signing wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders earlier this offseason.
The 34-year-old veteran inked a one-year deal with the Bills in March. For a day or two, there was a weird grey area, though.
There was a report that there was mutual interest with the Bills and Sanders. However, it was reported that Sanders was… going to be cut by the Saints.
Keywords: “Going to be.” It had not yet happened.
After a short period, everything came full circle. But in an interview with The Athletic recently, it sounds like Diggs was refreshing his social media accounts waiting for any updates on Sanders as well. But being in a position to do something about it, Diggs did.
He admitted he did reach out to Sanders to express his desire for him to be his teammate in Buffalo.
“When I started getting a little bit of wind of him thinking about coming out, I instantly hit him up and told him I would love to have another teammate like him,” Diggs said. “I had known him prior to that so it wasn’t like a brand-new person. But I told him, ‘We need you here.'”
Perhaps Diggs reaching a hand out helped. It’s certainly possible.
In addition to that, the Sanders-to-Buffalo train had long been in the making.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane previously admitted that he actually was talking to Sanders when he was a free agent in 2019 and also kicked the tires on trading for him when he was with the Broncos. Actually, the reason the Bills didn’t sign Sanders was because all of a sudden the Diggs trade happened.
Now here we are.
Along with all those links, Sanders also said during his introductory press conference that the tape didn’t lie. The Bills went the distance they did last season because they’re a good team and he wanted to be apart of it.
“They were in the AFC championship last year,” Sanders exclaimed. “This is already a great organization, they already have everything Buffalo needs. I just want to come in and just bring positive energy for one and bring my work ethic.”
“I would grab my iPad and I would watch the Buffalo Bills offense on my iPad, the coaches film,” Sanders added. “Just watch the routes they’re running, seeing Josh (Allen) run around, rip the ball 60 yards down the field or 50 yards down the field. It was just exciting to watch.
Of course, both Sanders and Diggs know that repeating and building on 2020’s successes won’t come without work. Diggs also revealed that eventually at some point this offseason,. players do plan to meet up once again like they did a year ago. One would expect Sanders to be a main attraction there.
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