Emmanuel Sanders emerged as a No. 1 wide receiver in fantasy football during his first year with the Denver Broncos last season. The pass-catcher hauled in 101 receptions for 1,404 yards and nine touchdowns. Naturally, owners coveted him higher in the draft this year. Unfortunately, Sanders hasn't provided the same return on investment as was hoped.
Thanks to Peyton Manning's sharp decline and nagging injuries, Sanders hasn't been the same guy this year. In 12 games he has caught 57 passes for 788 yards and four scores. That's good, but it's certainly not the top-of-the-line production people were expecting. That point was punctuated during Sanders' last two games in which he caught a total of five passes for 36 yards.
However, a bounce back performance may be in store.
"Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders showed he is getting healthier," ESPN Broncos reporter Jeff Legwold wrote. "With health could come impact. He has been the guy the Broncos have taken the most big-play chances with; he has four of the team's seven receptions of at least 40 yards this season. Before Sanders injured his shoulder in Cleveland, he was averaging 6.3 catches and 87.8 yards per game. Since the shoulder injury, he has averaged 2.7 catches and 37.3 yards, a span that also includes an ankle injury suffered in Indianapolis. But over the past two weeks, Sanders has started to look more explosive in practice, which should transfer to game day."
Helping his chances is this week's matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh's defense ranks 28th in receptions (329), 31st in receiving yards per game (296.2) and 24th in receiving touchdowns (25). Overall, they're allowing 25.1 points to opposing WRs per week, the seventh-worst mark in the league.
Yes, Sanders has seen a dramatic dip in production recently. But he's still garnering a decent 7.6 targets per game over the last three weeks, a number that should rise with better health. I wouldn't expect anything too crazy from him, but a repeat performance of the last two games is unlikely.
