DENVER’S DYNAMIC DUO: THOMAS AND SANDERS
Broncos wide receivers Thomas and Sanders share the spotlight
duo (doo-oh) noun: two people who perform together, are usually seen together, or are associated with each other.
Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas stood side by side at their temporary lockers at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati last Sunday night with a plan in place. Their five minutes in front of the media in a nearby interview room would be done in tandem, the two dressed in designer suits, fielding questions together with matching grins.
Sanders and Thomas had just combined for 217 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a 29-17 victory over the Bengals, marking the sixth time since 2014 they each topped 100 receiving yards in the same game. The spotlight was theirs again, and so they trotted out for a bow. Together.
“We’re the best in the game that does it,” Thomas said at the podium, “and it showed today.”
The joint news conference was rare but far from extraordinary. For Thomas and Sanders, most of their waking hours are spent together — on the field together, in meetings together, at their lockers next to each other, staring at electronic playbooks together, at practices often trash talking to each other.
The Broncos’ pint-sized showman and 6-foot-3 “country diva” operate as a package deal, a “one-two punch.”
“It’s the best duo I’ve had, having two of them like that,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. “I’ve had some great ones. We’re very balanced on each side of the field. They complement each other.”
Yet they couldn’t be any more different, in both proportion and personality. And that, in part, may explain their success.
First a disclaimer to the grievances aired in the week before the Cincinnati game, when Thomas and Sanders admitted they were frustrated by the few targets and an offense that, they said, played second-fiddle to the defense in the Broncos’ first two victories.
“People will say as long they win it doesn’t matter. They’re lying,” said Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, the former Broncos tight end who starred alongside wide receivers Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey for seven seasons. “I don’t care if they’re a running back, I don’t care if they’re a wide receiver, I don’t care if they’re a quarterback. Anybody that tells you all they care about is winning — they’re lying. ‘I want to win, but I want to get my numbers in the win.’ ”
Thomas and Sanders certainly did, and they haven’t been shy about admitting it.
“Hey, one thing, I don’t mind being the diva. I am a diva,” Sanders said. “I like winning ballgames. I like catching passes. Every wide receiver likes to catch passes. Every wide receiver in the world likes to put up points.”
But since 2014, when Sanders joined the Broncos, he and Thomas have ridden the waves of transition. In their first year together, they combined for 3,023 receiving yards and 212 catches, the most of any receiving tandem that season, and both earned a Pro Bowl nod.
“Wide receiver heaven” with Peyton Manning was as advertised. But it also was short-lived.
Emphasis on a balanced attack
The arrival of Kubiak in January 2015 brought a new offense and emphasis on a balanced attack. The route to a Super Bowl title would be mapped out similarly to the one taken in 1997 and again in 1998. Thomas and Sanders would get big rings but smaller individual numbers.
This year, however, Sanders and Thomas are intent on getting theirs, in part, to reignite what had become a stagnant offense.
Their friendly competition has never waned. But a reminder of its presence was issued in March, when quarterback Mark Sanchez hosted his then-new (and now former) teammates in Southern California for private workouts before training camp began at Dove Valley.
“Emmanuel was saying, ‘Mark, remember when the season rolls around who was here with you at 9 in the morning helping you get better when it comes time to throw the passes,’ ” recalled Sanders’ cousin, Josh Bryant. “And Mark, because he was new to the team, he was like, ‘Oh, that’s messed up, man. How you gonna dog D.T. like that?!’ But (running back) Ronnie Hillman was with us, and Ronnie was like, ‘Well, Emmanuel would say that if D.T. was standing right next to him.’ That’s just the kind of relationship they have.”
Tyke Tolbert, the Broncos’ wide receivers coach since 2011, has enough similar stories to fill a book.
“Oh, yeah, they talk trash,” Tolbert said. “In practice, when the defense is up and doing their stuff, they’re on the sideline talking about plays and who’s going to get this ball and who’s going to get that ball. They push each other, but it’s a fun, competitive environment.”
Fans in Cincinnati witnessed it firsthand last Sunday, when Thomas’ win-clinching, 55-yard touchdown reception was celebrated with a chest bump that almost knocked the wind out of Sanders.
“I can’t help he weighs a buck-70,” Thomas said with a laugh. “He’s the one who wanted to do it. … I was thinking in my head that he’s going to try to outjump me. I’m not going to let him outjump me.”
Close friends off the field
Thomas and Sanders say the root of their onfield connection is their friendship off the field. It’s not contrived or embellished for the cameras. It doesn’t change, even when everything around them does.
“Once he came here, we’ve been like brothers,” Thomas said. “We push each other every week to try to see who will be better, just to try to be the best that does it.”
The dynamic is rare in the NFL. But it’s not unique to Denver, a city that has been home to multiple elite receiving groups, the most notable being the one that helped the Broncos get their first two Super Bowl titles. For nine seasons, Smith and McCaffrey starred together, enjoying three 1,000-yard seasons together while sharing the offensive wealth and spotlight with Sharpe, running back Terrell Davis and Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.
“If you’re blessed enough to be in that type of situation, I think your team has a chance to be a championship-caliber team,” McCaffrey said. “That’s what we had back in the ’90s. Rod and I would compete as hard as we could on the field. At one point we were competing for the same job on the team, then the same starting position. But we’d sit and watch film together and root for each other to do well. We developed a friendship when we were backups. Then as our careers advanced, we started to get on the field more and more and I was probably happier than he was when he scored, and he would be cheering for me when I scored. We pushed each other to get better.”
The pair won two Super Bowls together, had three seasons in which they both had more than 1,000 yards receiving, and offered proof that the balanced offense orchestrated by Kubiak thrives with dual forces.
Thomas and Sanders, with their variance in power and size, give the Broncos options that they likely wouldn’t have with one elite wide receiver. Together they spread the field, forcing defenders to try to account for both. Where Sanders can beat defenders with his quickness and speed, Thomas can overpower defensive backs with his 6-foot-3, 229-pound frame.
Both can extend plays after the catch and both — as reinforced last Sunday — put defenses on notice.
“They can both hit a home run at any time,” said Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter, whose team hosts the Broncos this week. “There are plenty of good receivers in this league, but there are very few teams that have both guys that are capable of going the distance on any play — on either throwing it over your head, because they’re fast enough or big enough, or in the quick game and screen game making guys miss and then outrun them.
“As a tandem, I can’t imagine there are many better.”