Super Bowl-winning WR considered Bills’ most ‘failed’ candidate for 2024 NFL season

The Buffalo Bills overhauled their receiving corps in the 2024 NFL offseason, shedding Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs and add-on option Gabriel Davis while supplementing their starters with unproven but highly promising free agents and young contributors. Rookie Keon Coleman, former second-round pick Curtis Samuel, veteran Mack Hollins and recent Super Bowl winner Marquez Valdes-Scantling were brought into the One Bills Drive as part of the overhaul, with those players expected to spearhead Buffalo’s passing production alongside Khalil Shakir and second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid.

Each of the team’s recent acquisitions could reasonably be considered a “breakout” candidate given the number of targets available in the Bills’ receiving corps, but Bleacher Report doesn’t necessarily buy into that idea when it comes to any particular receiver. In a recent article predicting each NFL team’s “biggest failure” for the 2024 season, analyst David Kenyon predicted that Valdes-Scantling will disappoint in Buffalo’s blue and red this fall.

“While the offense needs a top-tier receiver to replace Stefon Diggs, there’s no ideal answer on the roster unless you really believe in rookie Keon Coleman,” Kenyon wrote. “As a result, the Bills signed Marques Valdes-Scantling to bolster their by-committee approach. The veteran receiver is limited as a route runner and can be a drop-prone target, though.”

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Valdes-Scantling is an interesting pick to peg as a bust candidate, as there are likely very few people expecting anything significant from the veteran. He’s projected as the team’s No. 4, at best, behind Coleman, Shakir and Samuel, and he’ll have to compete for that role with Hollins throughout camp. He should be an occasional boundary option who can make a splash once or twice a week, but he’ll be far from a contributor every time.

If the Bills’ biggest failure is a 29-year-old receiver they signed in mid-May, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

As Kenyon alludes to in his piece, Buffalo doesn’t have a bona fide primary receiver after Diggs’ departure, so the team should take a more egalitarian approach to aerial production, splitting the ball between Kincaid, Shakir, Coleman, Samuel, and (presumably) Valdes-Scantling. The receiver is coming off back-to-back Super Bowl seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, catching 63 passes for 1,002 yards during his stint. He’s coming off a 2023 campaign in which he had 21 receptions for 315 yards.This That’s probably the type of impact Buffalo is expecting from him in the fall, and if he can live up to (admittedly modest) expectations, it would be unfair to describe him as a failure.

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