"That's the type of guy that we need": Sanders impressed by Sanchez

Don’t worry, folks, that message that you’ve been wanting to send to Mark Sanchez has already been sent.

“I was talking to Mark,” Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders told media on Monday following the Broncos first offseason workout. “I was like, ‘Listen, man, you’ve got a baaaad defense behind you. All you have to do is take care of the football and we’ll win a lot of games.'”

Sometimes, they think just like us.

Now, will Mark Sanchez be the one leading the offense come opening night against the Panthers? That’s to be seen. But for now, he’s what they’ve got.

“Right now, we’ve got Trevor Siemian and we’ve got Mark Sanchez. That’s all we can focus on,” said Sanders. “Whatever the guys upstairs do, that’s what they do. But right now, our focus on just on the guys in the locker room.

“It’s a competition. Coaches have said that; Kubiak has said that,” he added. “We’ve got two good quarterbacks. Both of them have got big personalities, big arms, and I think they can get the job done.”

And while many Broncos fans aren’t exactly comfortable with that, Sanders has been pleasantly surprised with the guy who will wear No. 6.

“[Sanchez has made] a great first impression,” Sanders told. “I can tell that he wants to be a leader on this team. He wants to be the quarterback. He wants to be the guy.”

Sanchez has been texting Sanders “all the time” and the back-to-back 1,000-yard receiver met with the Broncos QB addition in Los Angeles to start working a few weeks back.

“I was impressed with his arm strength,” Sanders told. “I was impressed with the throws that the was making. I’ve been hearing around the locker room that he’s been spending extra time around the facility and that’s the type of guy that we need.”

Peyton Manning is no longer around. As Aqib Talib told on Monday, “Nobody was bold enough,” to sit in his seat at the team meeting. It’s a hole that can’t just be filled with a body but Sanders pointed out that his legacy with the Broncos leaves a lasting impact.

“Peyton gave us the blueprint of how to go about doing things,” he said. “Spending time off of the field, getting to know guys. We’re going to continuously follow that blueprint.”

And Manning isn’t the two-time Super-Bowl champion quarterback that’s giving a blueprint.

“I remember talking to John Elway,” Sanders said. “We were getting ready to get on the bus. I looked at Elway and I said, ‘After you won your first one did you enjoy it?’ He was like, ‘Yeah but I was thinking about the next one.’ And that’s how I feel right now. We’re out here, we’re working hard and we’re thinking bout the next one. I want to bring another parade to the City of Denver.”

With the start of OTAs Monday, the chase for that next one has officially begun. A welcome new beginning for Aqib Talib who talked about the utterly exhausting celebration the Broncos are just now winding up.

“All the congrats, all the nights out—the wave, the wave gets tiring,” the pro bowl corner said with a smile that stayed on his face the whole presser. “Me personally, I was ready to get back, burn some calories and get back to it. I was ready to get back to it.”

The Broncos are headed straight “Into The Fire” as their new workout t-shirts read, a fire that burns hot with 31… or, at least, 16 teams placing a large target on the backs of the Orange & Blue.

As for the quarterback situation, Elway and Co. are always working on it but, as they’ve made clear to the league, the Broncos are not going to show desperation, and part of that is due to their belief in Sanchez.

“I think Mark is one of those guys that understands. He’s a natural leader,” Sanders said. “You don’t have to tell him how the organization is run. He’s going to come in and he’s going to fit right in.

“He’s one of those guys. He’s not going to make mistakes off the field and do bad stuff. He’s a leader. I think it was more of getting the chemistry on the field and off the field. He ended up renting a house out [in California] for us. We all hung out. We went out and had dinner and had great conversations. Hopefully, that carries over and we can bring a championship to Denver.”