The Broncos' wide receiving corps have embraced their inner "diva."
"Hey, one thing, I don't mind being a diva," Emmanuel Sanders said jokingly, via ESPN. "I am a diva. I am a diva. I like winning ballgames, I like catching passes. Every wide receiver in the world likes to catch passes; every wide receiver in the world likes to put up points. After that game when the defense scored two touchdowns and you're looking and (cornerback Aqib) Talib has more touchdowns (than you) and the defense is holding us down, we're looking at ourselves and saying offensively that we have to step it up."
Sanders added Demaryius Thomas is a "country diva."
His words come a week after the tandem made some pointed remarks about the team's offense. Though Sanders and Thomas were happy to be 2-0, the plodding offense run by newly minted starting quarterback Trevor Siemian didn't exactly fill out their stat sheets. Sanders had 16 targets, eight catches and 88 yards after a pair of games and Thomas had nine catches for 138 yards.
Fast forward to Week 4 preparation and both are among the top 30 in total yards. Both reached the 100-yard plateau and the end zone in last week's win over the Bengals.
It was a moment of great relief across the board in Denver and proves several things about this team that we might not have expected to this point: The Broncos can put up yardage through the air, head coach Gary Kubiak can create mismatches and Siemian isn't shying away from increased responsibility week after week.
Some younger quarterbacks -- think Mark Sanchez during the Plaxico Burress/Santonio Holmes era -- tend to wilt a bit when big name superstar receivers start demanding the ball more. It can scramble their reads and force them into ugly looks they may not have considered otherwise.
While Siemian is not perfect, that doesn't seem to be the case developing in Denver.
So for now, there is nothing wrong with a couple of divas hanging around.
