The 49ers badly needed a first-round bye in the playoffs to get healthy and rest after their regular season bye week came back in Week 4. Nobody on the team needs the rest more than Emmanuel Sanders though.
Thanks to the timing of the 49ers-Broncos trade that sent Sanders to San Francisco for pair of draft picks, the 32-year-old didn’t get a bye week during the regular season. He played in 17 games.
Getting 17 games in a 16-game season isn’t easy to do. Sanders became just the third player to do it in the 2010s, joining Damon Harrison and Will Allen. He was the seventh player to do it since 2000, and just the ninth to do it since 1930.
Sanders nearly got time off with a rib injury, but he played through it and didn’t miss a game, although he exited a couple games early.
Still, a 17-game gauntlet is brutal, especially on the body of a 10-year veteran. A week off is massive for Sanders, who’s become an integral part of San Francisco’s passing game.
So how did this happen?
Sanders played in Denver for the first seven weeks of the season. Their bye week didn’t come until Week 10, and his final game with the Broncos was a Thursday night game in Week 7. By the time he got to San Francisco in Week 8, their bye week was long gone and Sanders played out the final 10 weeks with the 49ers.
The trade paid off for both the 49ers and Sanders though. Sanders gets to go back to the playoffs, while San Francisco got a receiver that finished third on the team in receiving yards despite a rib injury and playing in just 10 games for them. He finished his regular-season stint with the 49ers with 36 catches on 53 targets, 502 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown pass in the 49ers’ win over the Saints.
The 49ers get wild card weekend off, then they’ll face the lowest remaining seed in the divisional round. Having a well-rested Sanders for the first time will be a nice development as they begin their first playoff run since 2013.