Broncos’ Emmanuel Sanders reflects on Chiefs’ offseason courtship

The Chiefs’ failed free-agent courtship of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders is now in the past.

On Wednesday, Sanders — who signed with the Broncos in March after the Chiefs apparently thought they had agreed to a deal — went into detail about what happened.

Specifically, he was asked how close he was to being a Chief.

“It was close,” Sanders said. “We still had a lot of stuff that we had to deal with in terms of incentives, but I think we had the foundation of the contract ready, but I wasn’t happy with the incentives.”

Sanders said he met with the Chiefs on a Saturday and spent time at the team’s facility. But things would soon heat up.

“Yeah, I was out in Kansas City, of course,” Sanders said. “I was out there for like five hours though, so we were going back and forth on deals and we couldn’t come to a conclusion.

“But with that said, I had a flight that I had to catch to San Francisco that I ended up missing. So Denver ended up calling right before I was getting ready to sign. I was either going to sign with Kansas City or Tampa Bay or even catch a flight out in the morning to San Francisco.”

Sanders, however, made it clear that he never agreed to a deal with the Chiefs.

“There wasn’t anything in stone, and they tried to make it seem that way, but I’m way past that,” Sanders said.

Sanders, who caught six passes for 77 yards in the Broncos’ season opener against Indianapolis, is glad he settled on Denver.

“I just feel like I was a better fit here in Denver and it was obvious,” Sanders said. “They throw the football. In college, I played under a guy by the name of June Jones, who runs the run-and-shoot offense. I like to catch the ball. In college, we threw the ball on third-and-1, on fourth-and-1. I feel like that’s the mold that Denver has up here and I’m enjoying it.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2014 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Broncos’ Emmanuel Sanders reflects on Chiefs’ offseason courtship."