Report: Bills sign back-to-back Super Bowl-winning WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling

Veteran field stretcher Marquez Valdes-Scantling is reportedly signing with the Buffalo Bills.

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (11) / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills are expected to sign veteran wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the 29-year-old was in Orchard Park to visit the team on Monday evening.

Former #Chiefs and #Packers FA WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling is expected to sign with the #Bills, per me and @TomPelissero. He’s on a visit there today and the two sides are closing in on a deal. pic.twitter.com/wCVGHjYQGp

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 14, 2024

Once of pre-draft interest to the Bills, Valdes-Scantling was selected in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers, where he would start 39 games over his four-year stint with the team. He caught 123 passes for 2,153 yards and 13 touchdowns throughout his time in Wisconsin, serving as a boundary field stretcher for premiere quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Valdes-Scantling would link up with another elite passer in the 2021 offseason, inking a three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs to join forces with Patrick Mahomes. He caught 63 passes for 1,002 yards and three touchdowns throughout his two seasons with the Chiefs, winning back-to-back Super Bowls before being released by the team in February. 

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His knack for finding spots on rosters with elite quarterbacks has made itself apparent yet again, as he’s set to catch passes from Josh Allen throughout at least training camp and preseason. He joins a revamped Buffalo receiving corps that lost veterans Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis in the offseason; the team recentered the unit around (comparatively) young players like Khalil Shakir, Curtis Samuel, and rookie Keon Coleman in the spring, immediately making Valdes-Scantling one of the room’s more experienced players.

Valdes-Scantling not only brings tenure, playoff experience, and championship pedigree to the Bills’ receiving corps—he also brings speed, an element general manager Brandon Beane largely neglected to add in the offseason. He ran a 4.37 40-yard dash at the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine, and though he’s lost a step as he’s aged, his game is still largely predicated on speed.

While he’s currently the most proven boundary speedster on Buffalo’s roster, it’s difficult to imagine him usurping Shakir, Samuel, Coleman, or tight end Dalton Kincaid in the target pecking order. Eventual contract details will shed a bit of light on whether or not the Bills expect him to make the roster; as of now, he projects as an, in theory, reliable veteran who adds a different—and needed—dynamic to the Bills’ aerial attack. That said, don’t anticipate elite production.