Marquez Valdes-Scantling signing with Steelers, reunites with Aaron Rodgers after 49ers stint

After passing on the possibility to affix them this summer season, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is now planning to signal with the Steelers whereas reuniting with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, in line with NFL Media. 

The 31-year-old receiver labored out for the Steelers on Monday. He was just lately launched by the 49ers a day after they’d positioned him on injured reserve with a calf damage.  

Valdes-Scantling selected to signal with the 49ers‘ observe squad this summer season as a substitute of becoming a member of the Steelers as a result of he thought San Francisco offered him with a greater alternative given the 49ers’ accidents at his place. And whereas he did play in 5 video games, he caught simply 4 passes for 40 yards throughout his temporary time there. 

An eight-year veteran, Valdes-Scantling spent his first 4 NFL seasons with Rodgers in Inexperienced Bay. Throughout their third season collectively, Valdes-Scantling led the league in common yards per catch whereas serving to Rodgers win his third league MVP award. 

After 4 years in Inexperienced Bay, Valdes-Scantling gained two Tremendous Bowls with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs whereas creating a fast chemistry with quarterback Patrick Mahomes. His worth was particularly evident within the playoffs, as Valdes-Scantling caught three landing passes through the 2022 and 2023 postseasons. He caught a landing go throughout Kansas Metropolis’s Tremendous Bowl LVIII win over the 49ers. 

Valdes-Scantling’s first style of postseason success occurred years earlier in Inexperienced Bay. Within the 2020 NFC title recreation, he caught 4 of 6 targets for 115 yards and a rating within the Packers‘ 31-26 loss to the eventual champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Valdes-Scantling will be a part of the Steelers after spending elements of the previous two seasons with the 49ers, Payments and Saints. In Pittsburgh, he’ll be a part of an offense that has lengthy been trying to find depth on the receiver place.

 The Steelers’ receiving group has been led by DK Metcalf and fellow wideout Calvin Austin III. Pittsburgh’s passing recreation thus far has additionally included a gradual weight-reduction plan of working backs Kenneth Gainwell, Jaylen Warren and tight ends Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington. 

Together with getting an opportunity to play for a first-place workforce, it is secure to say Rodgers is a substantial cause why Valdes-Scantling is coming to Pittsburgh. 

“He’s a competitor,” Valdes-Scantling instructed CBS Sports activities in 2023 when requested about Rodgers. “Particularly if he will get right into a state of affairs the place he can show somebody unsuitable. He’ll reside and die by it.” 

Valdes-Scantling will grew to become the most recent former teammate of Rodgers from his Packer days to reunite with him. He performed with fellow Packers teammates Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams throughout his temporary tenure with the New York Jets. 

Talking of the Packers, the Steelers have begun the method of shaking off this previous Sunday evening’s 35-25 loss to Rodgers’ former workforce. Whereas the protection was largely responsible for the loss, Rodgers acknowledged afterward that the offense might have been higher on third down. The Steelers had been a dreadful 1 of 10 on third down, which contributed to the workforce settling for 3 Chris Boswell subject targets through the first half of Sunday evening’s eventual loss. 

“Properly, simply an sincere evaluation,” Rodgers stated afterward when requested how the Steelers can snap out of their two-game shedding streak. “I feel, setting emotions apart and being OK with criticism, any place, any participant, and being sincere about what we have to do to enhance. After which, we will not beat ourselves. 

“I feel within the three losses, there’s been instances the place we have had alternatives and we have harm ourselves with both turnovers or simply adverse performs. So we have got to chop these out. We have gotta get on the identical web page on each offense and protection, and hold the religion.”