The Crows structured their attack around key forwards Tippett and Taylor Walker last season, but Tippett walked out on Adelaide in last year's trade period and eventually joined the Sydney Swans via the pre-season draft.
Sanderson told AFL.com.au the Crows had spent a lot of time this pre-season working on different forward line structures they could adjust to counter particular opponents' strengths and to make themselves less predictable.
"We're not necessarily looking for the Kurt Tippett replacement; we've had a look at playing one tall, two talls and three talls," Sanderson said.
"So we've got lots of different looks we can throw at the opposition and it depends a bit on who's in form, but also on what our opponent's strengths are as well.
"We feel that [Tippett's exit] might be a blessing in disguise in some regards because we can sometimes unsettle how the opposition prepare to play us."
Sanderson said Josh Jenkins and Shaun McKernan were the talls most likely to share the Crows' forward 50 with Walker at times this season.
But he also said medium forwards Ricky Henderson, Tom Lynch and Lewis Johnston could be equally dangerous playing alongside Walker and small forwards such as Ian Callinan and Jared Petrenko.
"Some clubs play with three talls with a lot of success, but with other clubs, for example Carlton, their strength is their mosquito fleet of genuine small, quick guys," Sanderson said.
"We feel that we can have a blend of everything and some weeks we can play three talls, other weeks we can go with one tall.
"We've got three medium forwards who can be difficult match-ups as well. Guys like Henderson, Lynch and Johnston are around 188-192cm and can mark the ball, but also have a good aerobic base and are pretty quick.
"So we could look at things differently and play one tall and three mediums."
Sanderson said the Crows' other major focus during the pre-season had been their tackling.
He said although the Crows' pressure around the ball had been good last season, their tackling technique and intensity had been poor.
"We gave away a lot of free kicks but also our tackle numbers head to head were really down, I think we were ranked 16th," Sanderson said.
"So our tackling method and our tackling intensity were areas we focused on probably more than anything else."
Sanderson said Adelaide was primed for its round one clash against Essendon at AAMI Stadium this Friday night, but was mindful of not getting caught in the hype that surrounds the start of the season.
"Sometimes players, coaches and the AFL media do really build up for round one – it's almost like the Grand Final at the start of the year," he said.
"But the season is a marathon, it's not a sprint.
"It's important that we play well this Friday night. Our boys are ready and they've certainly had a good summer, but it's a long season and we'll make sure we keep improving as the season goes on."
Nick Bowen is a reporter with AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Nick
