Shortly after the Seahawks traded DK Metcalf and released Tyler Lockett, they signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling as part of their plan to replace them.
Cooper Kupp was the biggest part of that plan, but the Seahawks also brought in Valdes-Scantling, who led the NFL in yards per reception at 20.9 in 2020, with the hope he’d provide a deep threat. They based much of that optimism on the success Valdes-Scantling had during the second half of last season when he played with the Saints for Klint Kubiak, who was New Orleans’ offensive coordinator last year and is now with the Seahawks.
The marriage proved to be short-lived as the Seahawks released the 30-year-old, eight-year veteran Tuesday as part of the roster cutdown to 53 players, as first reported by ESPN and the NFL Network. Seattle tried to trade Valdes-Scantling, but apparently could find no takers with teams realizing the Seahawks were likely about to release him. Valdes-Scantling was also released by Buffalo at mid-season last year.
Valdes-Scantling entered camp as the No. 3 receiver behind Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Rookie Tory Horton began to supplant him in the lineup regularly in three-receiver sets with the starters as training camp progressed.
Horton has been dealing with an ankle injury suffered Aug. 15 against the Chiefs and Valdes-Scantling returned to working mostly with the starting receivers the last week.
But coach Mike Macdonald said Monday the hope is he is back to practicing fully next week as the Seahawks begins preparation for the season opener Sept. 7 against the San Francisco 49ers.
And that and the fact that other receivers such as Dareke Young and Jake Bobo had good camps and also provide the versatility of playing on special teams and being good blockers — as important as ever in Kubiak’s scheme — led to Valdes-Scantling’s release.
Evidence that Valdes-Scantling might be fighting for his job came in the final preseason game when he played 23 snaps after playing only 10 in the first two games, all in game two against the Chiefs.
Valdes-Scantling had three catches for 33 yards against the Packers.
One complication is that the Seahawks need the receivers at the back end of their rotation to play special teams, and Valdes-Scantling was not a fit for that at this stage of his career.
Valdes-Scantling signed a one-year contract worth up to $3 million that included a $1.5 million signing bonus and $1.5 million in guaranteed salary.
He becomes a free agent and can sign with any team immediately and the Seahawks are out at least the bonus. Offset language in his contract may mean they recoup some of the salary.
Valdes-Scantling admitted in an interview last week that he had gotten off to a slow start in camp, but said he felt he had been coming on in recent days.
A native of St. Peterburg, Fla., Valdes-Scantling had never played for a team west of the central time zone. He said that adjustment meant it took a little while to get used to doing things on Seattle time saying he was “just not able to get a lot of sleep the first week’’ of training camp.
“It was a change going from living in Florida all the way to the West Coast, the very top of the United States,’’ he said. “Now I’m here and got my feet under me and now I can be the player I want to be.’’
After a week or so, he said he was “able to move how I know I should be able to.’’
Valdes-Scantling also said there was an adjustment to the offense, even though he was already familiar with it because of his time with Kubiak in New Orleans.
“Got to New Orleans last year midseason, so I was kind of limited to one position,’’ he said. “But now being able to kind of move around and do different things has been good.’’
Now he’ll be moving on somewhere else.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.