The Saints didn’t have to work hard to sell wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders on joining the team as a free agent this offseason.
Sanders said in March that he didn’t need to hear from other teams once the Saints offered him a deal because he knew he wanted to play in an offense with quarterback Drew Brees. His feelings about playing with Brees haven’t dimmed in the ensuing months either.
Sanders said that Brees reminds him of Peyton Manning, who was the Broncos quarterback in 2014 when Sanders caught a career-high 101 passes for 1,404 yards and nine touchdowns. Now he and the Saints just need to nail down how he’ll look in the New Orleans offense.
“I think right now, they’re just trying to get a feel for me,” Sanders said, via Katherine Terrell of TheAthletic.com. “Yeah, they can watch the tape from ’14 and see how they could use me, but I think right now, they just want me to grasp the playbook at a specific position before they start moving me around and making my head swim, because it’s a lot of information that I’ve got to get.”
Sanders is trying to get a feel for the Saints at the same time. He said he’s learning “how it’s supposed to be and how they want me to run the route while trying to add my flavor to it.” He expects that everything will be “rocking and rolling on a high level” before too much longer, which would be the ideal outcome of the getting to know you process in New Orleans.