Kansas City Chiefs sign WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling

It’s official: Marquez Valdes-Scantling is gone. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero has reported that MVS has signed a three-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs that is worth between $30 million and $36 million depending on which incentives the receiver is able to hit. Over the first two years of the contract, the former Green Bay Packers wideout will make $18 million.

This move is hardly a surprise, as Valdes-Scantling made a trip to visit Kansas City on Wednesday, following the Chiefs’ trade of Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. Early today, it was reported that Kansas City was “50-50” on offering MVS a competitive contract, which he likely would have taken. The former South Florida Bull took to the deal and will be catching balls from Patrick Mahomes in 2022.

The Packers must turn to outside options to fill out their receiver room now, with just Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Amari Rodgers returning to the team as roster locks. Even then, Lazard and Cobb are on one-year deals and Rodgers rarely saw playing time outside of his punt return duties. To say the least, the future at receiver for Green Bay is a question mark moving forward.

Depending on how the rest of this pre-June 1st free agency period unfolds, the Packers can receive a compensatory pick in the 2023 NFL draft for the loss of Valdes-Scantling. Green Bay, according to Over The Cap, is already scheduled to earn a sixth-round pick for the Chicago Bears’ signing of offensive lineman Lucas Patrick. At $10 million per year, the Valdes-Scantling compensatory draft selection should give the Packers’ around a fifth-round selection in 2023.

Green Bay actually receiving the pick will depend on a few factors, with the most important being off-setting contracts in free agency, which can include defensive lineman Jarran Reed’s still unreported contract. With about $11.5 million in usable cap space, after accounting for the cap space that the Packers will use on their slated 2022 draft picks, the potential of off-setting a mid-round compensatory pick could lead Green Bay to address receiver via trade rather than free agency.