Grading KC Chiefs offensive free agent signings from 2022

Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Wide Receiver

When the Chiefs brought in MVS last March, many thought he was Tyreek Hill’s replacement, and he was in a way. He’s not even in the same stratosphere as Tyreek Hill but he did have the speed to potentially replace a portion of his production on deep balls.

With Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, he produced like a #3 wide receiver, never topping 40 catches or 700 receiving in the regular season. With the Chiefs, he was four yards away from setting a career-best (687) and he did set a career mark in receptions with 42. He also hauled in only two receiving touchdowns in the entire regular season.

For whatever reason, MVS and Patrick Mahomes never quite got it going consistently on deep passes. In both the regular season and playoffs, Mahomes was 13 of 26 for 395 yards, two touchdowns, and a 121.5 passer rating on deep attempts to Valdes-Scantling. For an average quarterback, those are perfectly fine stats, but we should expect more. There were also numerous misses on Mahomes’ part throughout the season to MVS that would have been touchdowns if he made accurate passes.

Where Marquez Valdes-Scantling earned his contract was the playoffs, particularly the AFC Championship Game. In the three playoff games en route to the Super Bowl, he racked up seven catches, 122 yards, and two touchdowns. In the AFC Championship win over the Bengals, he had six catches, 116 yards, and a touchdown. In an extremely important game where Chiefs wide receivers were dropping like flies, MVS lived up to the challenge and had the game of his life.

The reason his grade isn’t higher is his multi-year contract and the fact that he was extremely streaky, which wasn’t a surprise but was disappointing.

The Grade: B