Despite not doing a whole lot in his four years with the Cincinnati Bengals, Mohamed Sanu is getting a lot of interest as he heads into free agency, with the New England Patriots (especially), New York Giants and Tennessee Titans going after the wide receiver.
Sanu, 26, had just 33 receptions (out of 49 targets) to finish with 394 yards and 0 touchdowns last season, but those interested in him know it came from simply being underused in the Bengals offense, going a lot with A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert and the running back duo of Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard. Sanu was a lot more useful in 2014, when he had a career high 56 receptions and targeted 98 times while finishing with 790 yards and five touchdowns.
The Patriots are a team that’s always in need of receivers it seems, sticking with two primary targets and rotating the rest of them according to need. Sanu would probably give Tom Brady a nice, reliable option to diversify things in terms of the kind of passes he can make while usually focusing on Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski, and in a pass-heavy offense the Patriots seem to be going with according to last season, Sanu should get plenty of looks.
The New York Giants have been connected with pretty much every free agent out there. So far their one move has been retaining Jason Pierre-Paul. Their main target, also a Bengals player, was Marvin Jones, but he is signing with the Detroit Lions, so it’s natural they move on to Sanu, hoping they give Eli Manning something more than just Odell Beckham to throw to. Rueben Randle has been disappointing with his effort and Victor Cruz hasn’t lived up to the money he’s been paid.
The Tennessee Titans, who need to give Marcus Mariota more players to throw to in order to move out of the AFC South cellar, will also be in the running for Sanu, being one of the more cap flexible teams with more than $47 million to spend. Sanu was a third round pick coming out of Rutgers in 2012. In 57 games for the Bengals he has 152 receptions, 1793 yards and 11 touchdowns.