Wide Receiver Series, Short Briefs, #1: Marquez Valdes-Scantling

David Bell

Do not confuse the #1 in the title as indicating that MVS is WR #1. He is the first player of focus before Training Camp. It could be that Marques ends up being the WR who has the Catches and Yards that you’d expect from the #1 WR. We’ll see. My goal is to examine each player who I think has a good shot at being on the opening Roster and Marquez certainly qualifies. Barring an injury in camp or pre-season, he will be an important cog in the aerial attack machinery.

Marquez had his biggest game as a Chief in 2022 when he was the go-to WR for Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. Marquez Valdes-Scantling graded out very high for that game with a PFF Grade of 89.4. He had 6 catches on 8 targets, 116 yards receiving, and scored a TD. When he caught the six passes, each one of them gained a first down. As important, his yards per catch was 19.3 yards and his YAC for the game was 6.7 yards per reception. That was a huge game for the Chiefs and MVS specifically.

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Stiff Arm and YAC – Jay Biggerstaff, USA Today Sports Photo credit

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MVS exceeded his production with his former QB Aaron Rodgers at Green Bay by 300 yards receiving. He had 42 catches for 687 yards scoring two TDs. That is approaching the magical 1k yardage marker, and he accomplished this in his first season as a Chief’s WR. One addendum (a What If Note) I would add to that is that Patrick Mahomes missed MVS on deep passes, blaming himself for missing his own mark. There were at least four passes that if completed, would have given MVS a total reception count of 46 and it would have eclipsed the 1k mark and probably added at least 3 TDs.

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Can MVS be the #1 WR?

As the 2022 season progressed, PMII appeared to gain confidence in targeting Marquez, and as observed above, MVS had his biggest game as a Chief in postseason play. My judgment is that yes, it is possible for MVS to eclipse his mark from 2022 and gain yardage in excess of 900 yards receiving. With the Chiefs though, that is a tall order. Patrick Mahomes will have many targets to choose from, including the renowned Greatest TE of all time, Travis Kelce. Getting the ball divvied up among the potential targets is a good problem to have which is why I chose the 900-yard idea.

At Green Bay, MVS was used to stretch the field and draw defenders deep. He was also targeted on the Deep Ball but mostly that effort was to open up the short and intermediate range for other Rodgers passes, a fact that my younger son Ian will attest to since he is a big Cheese Head and has been for more than 20 years. Logan Lazarczyk wrote a piece for ChiefsWire.com called: “Making a case for Marquez Valdes-Scantling as Chiefs’ WR1 in 2023” in whihc he said:

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“Before arriving in Kansas City, Valdes-Scantling was primarily used as a field stretcher in Green Bay. With the Chiefs, he was asked to be more effective in the intermediate parts of the field while still being used to exploit defenses down the field at times.”

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In 2022, MVS and Patrick Mahomes appeared to get on the same page as the season progressed with the culmination being the AFC Championship game. Here is a video of MVS’ highlights from the Bengals game in the AFC Championship (2:04):

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I am not going to claim that MVS will be the #1 target for Patrick Mahomes… but he could be. I am predicting that MVS will garner more catches and more TDs than he got in 2022… along with 900+ yards receiving — approximately — in 2023. Let’s see how it turns out!

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David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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