The 90 to 1 Green Bay Packers roster countdown: No. 14 – Marquez Valdes-Scantling

Marquez Valdes-Scantling appears to be the clear front-runner to start opposite Davante Adams

The Green Bay Packers, and their 90 players on the roster, are in the midst of their first training camp under coach Matt LaFleur. In an annual tradition from my 11 years at Packer Report, I rank the players in order of importance from No. 90 to No. 1. This isn’t just a listing of the team’s best players. Our rankings take into account talent, importance of the position, depth at the position, salary and draft history. More than the ranking, we hope you learn something about each player. (Note: The start of this series can be found with my former employer.)

No. 14: WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling ($624,389 cap)

The much-hyped receiver battle might not be a battle at all. Same as OTAs and minicamp, while the rest of the receivers toil away doing special-teams drills, Valdes-Scantling, fellow receiver Davante Adams, quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a few other select players are working on the side. At 6-foot-4 and with 4.36 speed in the 40, Valdes-Scantling has an elite skill-set that the Packers clearly want to maximize.

“I think this offense is really catered for a guy like him,” Adams said.

How so?

“Just the tempo, the type of routes we’re running, the marriage between the pass game and the run game, and some of the play-pass stuff,” Adams replied. “There’s a lot of speed involved in all things. And the way he played, he runs fast, but he plays even faster. And you don’t always see that with the guys who run 4.3. Sometimes they come out and play slow. But he’s not thinking much. He’s just going. He’s a really, really smart guy, too. People don’t understand that. He’s picked up stuff. I always make jokes with him, I bet he was the guy in science class who’d finish his test and start distracting other people. You can tell things kind of come easy to him. Combine that with the ability that he has on the field, that’s dangerous.”

The play-action game can be the ticket to big plays. The Packers, however, had a feeble play-action attack because of the lack of commitment to the running game. In that context, it’s interesting to look at some of Matt LaFleur offenses. In 2016, when LaFleur was Atlanta’s quarterbacks coach in helping the Falcons reach the Super Bowl, NFL MVP Matt Ryan was No. 1 with 11.3 yards per attempt on play action. In 2017, when LaFleur was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in helping an offense that went from worst to first in scoring, quarterback Jared Goff was No. 2 with 10.6 yards per attempt on play action. In 2018, when LaFleur was offensive coordinator in Tennessee, Marcus Mariota’s injured throwing shoulder took the explosion out of the Titans’ passing attack but he still averaged 1.7 yards more on play-action passes vs. standard passes.

With Valdes-Scantling’s game-breaking speed, he could be the home run threat the Packers haven’t had since Jordy Nelson’s prime. With opponents presumably focusing on Adams, who had a monster fifth season in the league, the door could be opened even further.

“I think Davante’s one of the best receivers in the league,” Valdes-Scantling said. “I think he is the best receiver in the league just from what he can do at the line of scrimmage and how he attacks the ball and how he looks at defenders and just gets open. So, when you get a guy like that who really just can’t be covered, it creates a matchup problem where they’ve got to put two on him. That leaves one-on-one somewhere else. You get myself in a one-on-one situation, I like me. I’m going to bet on myself 10 out of 10 times. It just makes it difficult on defenses.”

The second of three receivers drafted by the Packers last year, Valdes-Scantling caught 38 passes for 581 yards (15.3 average) and two touchdowns. He had a series of five strong games at midseason. Starting with seven catches at Detroit in Week 5 and six catches against Miami in Week 10, Valdes-Scantling caught 21 passes for 361 yards and two touchdowns during that span, including 100-yard games against the 49ers and Patriots. Valdes-Scantling was the 19th of 34 receivers drafted; he finished sixth in receptions and yards and eighth in touchdowns.

Now, it’s about taking the next step in his career. To that end, he spent the offseason training with Randy Moss.

“I got a good month with him. I got a solid four or five days a week with him,” he said. And his largest takeaway from the Hall of Famer? “Just being yourself. That’s kind of the focus that he always said, ‘Don’t try to go out and be me or emulate me. I can teach you some things that I did, but you can be yourself.’ So that’s the thing he always preached.”

It’s also about taking more steps with Aaron Rodgers. They made one of the big plays of training camp with a 34-yard touchdown bomb to win a two-minute drill. Valdes-Scantling swooped inside of cornerback Jaire Alexander at the last moment to make a diving catch.

“If you get the trust from the quarterback, he’s going to throw you the football,” Valdes-Scantling said. “I think that’s the simplest way to put it. Davante can be covered by two guys and 12 still trusts him. I think that’s what it is, you’ve got a guy like Davante who can make any catch at any time over anybody. That’s what you want to have in a connection with the quarterback. He trusts him no matter what the call is, what the coverage is, you’ve got a guy like 17, that’s the kind of trust you want.”