Emmanuel Sanders brings perspective to fast start with Bills

The Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver appreciated the gesture. But he has caught 685 passes and 51 touchdowns over his 12-year career. He’s not into accumulating any more personal souvenirs in the regular season.

“I saw the ball in my locker,” Sanders said. “I was like, I don’t really need that. It’s not that I have enough. It’s just I do what I’ve got to do to win games. It’s not about me. It’s just a touchdown to win games. I don’t know. It’s weird how that happens. I don’t get a high from it anymore like I used to.

“Even checking my stats,” Sanders said. “I don’t care. I just want to win. You know what I mean? I think that was the best feeling. We beat the Chiefs. It wasn’t, ‘I scored two touchdowns.’ We beat the Chiefs. That felt good. Then I was like, ‘We beat the Chiefs but ... let’s move on.’ ”

That’s the kind of feet-on-the-ground perspective Sanders has provided to the Bills’ locker room this season. His experience has been an asset both on and off the field.

Sanders has 24 catches for 413 yards and four touchdowns through six games. His yards-per-catch average of 17.2 is third in the NFL among the 74 receivers with at least 20 catches.

If he kept up this pace, it would give him 64 catches for 1,101 yards in a 16-game season, his best yardage total since the 2015 season with Denver. Only one Bills receiver in the last 20 years (Sammy Watkins in 2015) has averaged 17 yards a catch on 50 or more catches.

Sanders could not be happier about the situation in which he finds himself at age 34.

“It starts at the quarterback position,” Sanders said of the Bills’ offense. “We’ve got a talented quarterback. We’ve got a guy who’s smart, a guy with a big arm, a guy who can extend plays, a guy that obviously, if you’re a defensive coordinator, you’ve got to scheme it up. I think we’ve got a great offensive coordinator. He knows how to dial it up. Him and Josh have great chemistry.”

Sanders quickly has become enamored with Allen.

On Allen’s leaping run for a first down against the Chiefs, Sanders said:

“That’s Air Allen,” Sanders said. “I told him, 'Man I’m about ready to get rid of these Air Jordans and get some Air Allen shoes,' jumping over the defender. That drive was just crucial. It really just showed me who he was.”

“You want to talk about a guy that has that Mamba Mentality,” Sanders said, referring to the title of Kobe Bryant’s autobiography. “Whatever I’ve got to do to go down and score on this drive and hopefully put this game away. You saw that in him on that drive. He took matters into his own hands. Plenty of times, even on third down when he jumped over the guy, that goes to show what type of guy he is. He’s a special player.”

Sanders also has formed a close connection with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.

“I’ve FaceTimed more with him than I’ve done with any other coach in my career,” he said. “Daboll will be in a hot tub and will FaceTime me just randomly. Me and him will catch up for like five minutes. I think him and Josh’s chemistry is just amazing. When they’re operating together, Josh is thinking like Daboll. They’re usually on the same page."

Daboll is known for FaceTiming lots of Bills offensive players. What do they discuss?

“Sometimes it’s just, 'Hey, I want to crack a joke,’ ” Sanders said. “He’s trying to set me up to crack a joke. I’m like, 'You’re not getting me on this joke right here.' Sometimes it’s 7 at night and he’s like, ‘I just drew up this play right here.’ I’m like, 'Daboll, go to sleep dude.' He just wants to show me a play he’s drawn up. It’s all love though at the end of the day when he’s calling. I know that for sure.”

As his quotes suggest, Sanders is engaging in conversation. He has insight coming out of his eyeballs.

On the path to NFL consistency: “I think I've learned how to be a pro and I've been in big games, I've been in small games. I’ve lost small games and have won games that people said we weren't supposed to win, and I've done stuff that people said I wasn’t supposed to do. Throughout the journey, I’ve just learned. I guess it's just my routine and my way of thinking, my way of going to work. I feel like my career, the reason why I'm here talking to you guys is because every day no matter what it is – win, lose, draw – no matter what it is, I let everything go and I move on and I go right back to work. Whether I have a 200-yard game, a 100 yard-game or drop a pass, I go right back to work. And so, I'm a big believer in that.

On not forcing it as a receiver when the ball isn’t coming to you: “Sometimes forcing it is from an emotional standpoint. You get so caught up in the emotions of it, that you’re not running your routes the same, you’re cutting your routes short, you’re not mentally there, because you’re waiting on the ball to come. Instead of just saying, ‘So what? Let me just relax, be a great teammate, root for my guys.’ And when my opportunity comes, I’ll be ready for it. I just think that overall, that’s good for the team as well.”

On facing NFL stars or being a 17-point favorite, as the Bills were vs. Washington: “If I face the greatest cornerback or the worst cornerback in the NFL, they’re nameless, great faces to me. I gotta attack them, and I’m trying to win every time, no matter who it is. So you don’t get sucked into that. You don’t get sucked into that whole 17-point favorite. My dad called, and he was like, 'Hey, they got you set ... ' 'Dad, I’m sorry, I don't wanna hear it.’ At the end of the day, this is the National Football League, and any team can get beat at anytime.”

His teammates recognize his comfort in his own skin.

“You know, he's got juice,” Allen said. “He's been great for me. I know he's been great for the other guys in this locker room. And to have that guy who's been there and done it and won the whole thing, to have his presence, I think that's huge for us. And it's only going to continue to get better, in my opinion.”

“His presence of who he is, guys feed off it,” tackle Dion Dawkins said. “He has had an amazing career, and guys know it. So they respect it. Guys watch him, and he’s a process guy. So if we know that E is gonna be in the cold tub, to the hot tub, to the cold tub, to the hot tub, after practice every day, and we know, OK, 30 minutes after practice, we’re gonna see E. So when I say that, I’m just saying he’s giving guys little pointers of how to enhance their process during the week. And on top of that, he’s doing it on game days as well.”

Sanders has caught passes from Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. This isn’t the first time he has had a fast start with a good quarterback.

“In ‘14 me and Peyton got off to a fast start, too,” he said. “I think that year I ended up having 1,400 yards from him.”

Sanders won a Super Bowl ring with Manning and the Broncos in the 2015 season.

“About 2014-15, I was all about trying to go to the Pro Bowl, trying to take care of my family,” he said. “Now I’m just enjoying the ride of being in a great organization, trying to be the best teammate, make my plays and win games and hopefully at the end of it, we can do something special.”