Marquez Valdes-Scantling Listed as Potential KC Chiefs Salary Cap Casualty
The offseason is here, and the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves in a respectable position as far as the salary cap is concerned. With plenty of avenues to potentially free up even more space, general manager Brett Veach has a good deal of flexibility but also several key decisions to make in the coming weeks.
One player who provides flexibility and one of those decisions is wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. The former fifth-round pick had a roller coaster of a year in Kansas City, hauling in just 21 passes 315 yards and a touchdown. In the playoffs, he increased his production to 128 yards and a score in four games but was still not living up to his salary.
With Valdes-Scantling carrying a $14 million cap charge for the 2024-25 season, it seems likely that he won't be playing at that number. As a result, many have argued that the six-year veteran should be cut this offseason. In his list of cap casualty candidates for all 32 NFL clubs, Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team added fuel to the fire by listing Valdes-Scantling:
Marquez Valdes-Scantling had his downs this past year, but he fully redeemed himself down the stretch and into the postseason as the Kansas City Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl.
The Chiefs are likely to revamp their receiver room this offseason, and keeping Valdes-Scantling when they can clear $12 million in space is highly unlikely.
If the Chiefs move off of Valdes-Scantling's contract prior to June 1, they'd be able to save $12M against the cap while incurring just $2M in dead money. Letting a player of his caliber occupy a projected 5.7% of the overall team cap doesn't make sense, especially considering 2023 was his second season in the system. In his sophomore campaign with the team, Valdes-Scantling saw decreases in success rate (48.1% to 40.5%), yards per target (8.5 to 7.5) and passer rating when targeted (83.7 to 73.0) from the year before. His drop rate also increased from 6.2% to 7.1%.
When Kansas City first signed Valdes-Scantling to a three-year deal back in the 2022 offseason, they built themselves an out for a scenario just like this one. It's far from impossible for the former Green Bay Packer to return to the Chiefs for another season, although it would probably take a restructured contract agreement or a re-signing after being cut. Valdes Scantling's leadership, speed and run blocking are valuable assets, just not at the capacity he was asked to provide them this past season.
Change is set to arrive for the Chiefs' wide receiver room this offseason. If the consensus holds, Valdes-Scantling will be one of the first dominos to fall in order for that to happen. At the end of the day, the aforementioned combination of underperformance and available cap savings makes it quite difficult to envision a return at the currently slated $14M price point.
