Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas are bringing the diva back to the wide receiver position. However, this time it’s a positive, not a negative.

“Hey, one thing, I don’t mind being a diva. I am a diva,” Sanders said with a laugh on Thursday after practice. “I am a diva.”

Typically speaking, being a diva comes with a negative connotation and is associated with phrases such as “prima donna” and “clubhouse cancers”. However, Sanders and Thomas are as far from those phrases as possible. In fact, both are two leaders and hearts and souls of the offense and the team.

“After that game when the defense scored two touchdowns [Week 2 against the Indianapolis Colts] and you’re looking and [Aqib] Talib has more touchdowns and the defense is holding us down, we’re looking at ourselves and saying offensively that we have to step it up,” Sanders said. “‘What’s going on?’ This is a ‘defensive-led team,’ no, this is a team.”

And boy did they. After Thomas and Sanders asked for the ball more last week, the passing game brought the heat on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals, throwing for 312 yards and four touchdowns. Sanders and Thomas had monster games accounting for 20 targets, 15 targets, 217 yards and three touchdowns.

“I like winning ball games, 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,” Sanders said.

Ultimately, Sanders doesn’t forget what is most important.

“At the end of the day, that was just one week. We have 16 weeks and obviously everybody is invested in the best for this team,” Sanders said.

Sanders knows that his teammates and coaches know what his comments mean, no matter know the media spins it, and that’s all he cares about.

“[The media] write the stories and you say it how you want to say it, but in that locker room everybody knows our personalities,” Sanders said. “Everybody knows my personality, Demaryius’ personality; everybody knows that we’re going to work our butts off.”

Not only are Sanders and Thomas brining back the diva attitude to the receiver position, but also they are going even further by labeling what type of diva they are.

“[Thomas is] like a country diva. I’m like a Hollywood diva,” Sanders laughed.

After thinking about it, Thomas thought Sanders label was actually pretty spot on, but wasn’t afraid to speak his mind on Sanders either.

“I’m from the country. I drive a Ford Raptor. Ain’t nothing wrong with that,” Thomas said with a big laugh on Thursday. “Our diva is Emmanuel, of course. That’s the diva on our team.”

Sanders and Thomas are trying to make diva wide receivers the hot thing again. With the way it’s gone so far, they should keep doing their thing, as long as when push comes to shove they continue to put the team’s success before the individual.