What happens if the 49ers cannot get Brown on the roster? Plan B. There’s always Plan B. Benjamin Allbright reports Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders is that Plan B.
Allbright backed up the above tweet during an appearance on 1st and 10@10. The discussion was on if Brown could come to the Denver Broncos and how he and Sanders could co-exist:
The Niners are very interested in Brown and if they don’t get him, Kyle Shanahan very very much likes Emmanuel Sanders. So if Antonio Brown were to come here [Denver Broncos], he and Sanders are not going to exist on the same football team. If you know enough about either one of them, you know they are not going to be on the same team. So I’d suggest the Niners and Broncos would have a natural built-in trade partner there. That makes things interesting if you’re one of these people suggesting they need to trade-up for a quarterback.
Getting Sanders would require a trade with the Denver Broncos. This is where it gets interesting: Sanders will be 32 in the 2019 season and is due an estimated $10 million for the final year of his deal. The Broncos have Courtland Sutton waiting in the wings and he didn’t have a bad rookie season, so maybe he can fill the void left from Sanders.
The other issue is the injury. Sanders is rehabbing an achilles tear suffered late in the 2018 season. Not only do the 49ers have to give up some compensation to get Sanders, they also would be chancing his rehab onto the field. This is different than Richard Sherman’s rehab as Sherman’s injury was suffered in early November vs. Sanders going down almost a month later. There’s a chance Sanders’ rehab could bleed into the season.
So Plan A is Brown, Plan B is Sanders. Kind of a drop off, but what do you think of Sanders on the 49ers?