Emmanuel Sanders Released By Saints; Will Patriots Be Interested Once Again?
BOSTON (CBS) -- Another free-agent possibility has emerged for the Patriots in wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders.
The soon-to-be-34-year-old wideout was released on Wednesday by the Saints, who are working hard to get under the salary cap.
Saints are releasing WR Emmanuel Sanders, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 10, 2021
Sanders caught 61 passes for 726 yards and five touchdowns in 14 games for the Saints last year. The previous year, he was traded from Denver to San Francisco (around the same time that the Patriots acquired Mohamed Sanu), after five and a half seasons with the Broncos.
While Sanders is surely not the 1,000-yard receiver he was from 2014-16, it's still worth wondering if the Patriots will have interest in acquiring his services.
The Patriots absolutely wanted Sanders way back in 2013, when they signed the then-restricted free agent to an offer sheet. Rather than take New England's third-round pick, the Steelers opted to match the offer and retain Sanders. He ended up setting what were then career-highs that season, his fourth and final year in Pittsburgh.
While Sanders didn't have much say in staying in Pittsburgh that year, he did open up last year about what could have been had the Steelers not matched the offer sheet.
"If I had went to New England, I probably would've been a Hall of Famer," Sanders told NBC Sports Boston last January. "I probably would've been a Hall of Famer. That was, what, my third year in the league? Tom [Brady] would've had, what, seven more years left? How many Super Bowls have they won from then?"
The Patriots pursued Sanders the following year in free agency, but he ended up signing a three-year, $18 million deal in Denver, where he quickly ascended to Pro Bowl status while working with Peyton Manning.
Times have obviously changed. Brady is no longer at QB, and Sanders is much older than he was then. But the mutual interest from the past means that a potential Sanders-Patriots union is something that bears watching.