© Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
The last time Emmanuel Sanders played against the Carolina Panthers, he was rubbing salt in the wound. It was the opening game of the 2016 season, and Sanders’ Denver Broncos beat the Panthers 21-20 in a rematch of the 2015 Super Bowl, which those Broncos had won 24-10 in Santa Clara just seven months prior.
It’s been more than four years since that Super Bowl. While while much of the personnel has changed for the Panthers, Sanders doesn’t see much difference in their identity from then to now (fun fact: the 49ers and Panthers currently have exactly seven players from their 2015 rosters still on the team, with Eric Reid the one player to switch sides). Sanders pointed to their defensive lynchpin, Luke Kuechly, and cornerback James Bradberry.
“I don’t think it’s really changed,” Sanders said. “Obviously you still got Luke Kuechly, they’re awesome players. When I was when there, Josh Norman was there, but number 24 [Bradberry] is a good player. Really good player. I’m looking forward to going against him. I enjoy matchups like that to see how I fit against him and see how I can perform.”
The question for Sanders coming in is whether he’ll be able to adjust to Kyle Shanahan’s notoriously tricky offense on the fly. He made it clear from the get-go that he wasn’t too concerned with that adjustment, saying that about “90 percent” of Broncos offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello’s offense is similar to Shanahan’s. Scangarello was the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach for the past two seasons.
Sanders saw plenty of face time with the coaching staff yesterday, talking to passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur and run game coordinator Mike McDaniel, as well as other coaches, for minutes at a time during the opening portion of practice, when most players were in positional drills. He’s also had the assistance of former Broncos teammate, Wes Welker, who’s in his first season as the 49ers’ receivers coach, helping him through the playbook.
He said he knew his involvement on Sunday would be based on the amount he could pick up from the offense, and while it’s been going well—an added bonus, in terms of studying, has been the free time he’s had without his family in Santa Clara, though his wife, Gabriella, joined him this morning—he did call himself out for a mental bust he had in practice on Friday.
“If I came in here and didn’t give them the confidence enough that I can pick it up obviously my plays would have been 10-15,” Sanders said. “And that probably wouldn’t ever have been good, because for me to play in a game and get 10 to 15 reps, I haven’t did that since like my rookie year.
“It’s been a smooth transition, Wes has helped me out a lot, we communicate each day. First day, until nine or 10 o’clock at night so just trying to understand the playbook and how they want me to do it. The second day it came from Kyle. It’s been a smooth transition. I had a mental bust today, only one out of the plays that I have, but that bust is still bothering me because I want to be perfect in the game, so I gotta go back and just keep studying keep studying, and preparing and then when I get out there on Sunday, just let it loose.”
There’s been every indication that Sanders will remain in the slot, with Shanahan hinting that he’d prefer not to move his position, and Sanders saying in his opening presser that he’ll stay there. Having that base level of knowledge in the acclimation process was something Shanahan pointed to before saying that he’d play “a lot.”
“I thought he did as good as he possibly could,” Shanahan said. “It’s always tough for people and it takes all year for guys to get used to it, especially when you miss the foundation in the offseason, but it really helps him being with [Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Rich] Scangarello in Denver, so a lot of it is very similar, so he’s able to kind of jump in right away and make some mistakes as it goes. But, at least he was able to get in there right away and do some things where most guys, they’d be really overwhelmed. It would take them some time. Still a huge challenge for him, but he’s definitely got as good of a head start as he could.”
The 49ers often like to say they need to correct the “little things,” those “little details,” which they generally decline to go into detail about. Sanders explained that Shanahan is highly specific about the depth receivers need to run their routes. Some of the tape used by Shanahan in explaining those routes comes from Marquise Goodwin—who is questionable for personal reasons on Sunday—as well as former Shanahan players Aldrick Robinson and Julio Jones.
“For me it was all about depth and how to run a route, because fo I’ve been running routes,” Sanders said. “You tell to run me a through and I’ll run it how you know I’ve always run it the past two years and for him to say, ‘Alright, this is how I want it to be run,’ and then show me footage of players doing it, he really went into details. He told guys the first day, he was like, ‘Yeah I know you guys know how to do it but this is for Emmanuel,’ like this is how it’s supposed to be and then the next day I went home and watched film and kind of went over the same plays as practice. To be able to get those plays right, get a feel for it and see running it his way how much easier it is to get open.”