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This year’s leap into NFL free agency started off with a whirlwind of moves, with one of the largest transactions involving a trade of Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs in exchange for a haul of Buffalo Bills draft picks. A few days later, the New Orleans Saints agreed to sign the best wide receiver on the free agent market, Emmanuel Sanders. But things almost went very differently.
Sanders spoke about his minor role in the Bills-Vikings trade during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, detailing how he was nearly the Pro Bowl-caliber weapon paired with Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Sanders said, “I spoke with the Bills for a little bit. And I told them, ‘Let me think about the idea, give me a night.’ And 30 minutes later the Stefon Diggs deal went through and I was like, ‘Okay.'”
The implication certainly seems to be that if Sanders had accepted the offer Buffalo put on the table then and there, he’d be shopping for parkas and making the rounds as a new number-one receiving option in the Queen City. Instead, his delay meant that the Bills had to move quickly to secure Diggs before another team could beat them to the punch. It’s funny how things work out.
Sanders then turned to the rest of his experience in free agency, in which he weighed competing offers from the Green Bay Packers and a possible reunion with the San Francisco 49ers, who swapped multiple draft picks to acquire him at last season’s trade deadline.
“Then I kind of waited,” Sanders said. “I was talking to Green Bay, I was talking to the Niners. Just trying to figure out what kind of deal, what kind of money we’re talking about. And then the Saints called. And I ecstatic that they called, the opportunity to play with Drew Brees and everything, and the numbers made sense.”
Sanders pointed to other factors that helped make his decision easy — playing most of his games indoors in the NFC South was a big selling point, as was the pairing with Michael Thomas across the formation from him. And Sean Payton’s resume as a play-caller spoke for itself.
“(Payton) had texted me, and he told me to go and look at the film of what they’d been doing for the last 12 years, I think he said,” Sanders continued. “And he was like, ‘You’ll love it here.’ I didn’t even go look at the film, I texted him back within 10 seconds and told him I didn’t have to look at the film, I know what you guys have done and what your system produces.”
Sanders revealed another detail — that Drew Brees was the first person to reach out him and welcome him to the team, reacting even before members of Sanders’ family learned of the news. That meant a lot to him, reinforcing Sanders’ belief that this was the right landing spot for him to choose. The fact that he gets to enjoy the weather in sunny New Orleans rather than frigid Green Bay was just another bonus, as well as proximity to his extended family near the Texas-Louisiana state line. Maybe things worked out best for everyone after all.
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