The Kansas City Chiefs Add Speed With Ronald Jones And Marquez Valdes-Scantling

The Kansas City Chiefs traded away perhaps the league’s fastest player in Tyreek Hill, but they’ve added a lot of speed this past week.

They signed wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling to a three-year contract.

“Well, obviously I’ve been a top deep threat in the league for my four years,” Valdes-Scantling said. “Those stats (do) speak for themselves.”

Valdes-Scantling, who ran the 40 in 4.37 seconds at the 2018 NFL Combine, has averaged 17.5 yards per catch during his NFL career. And in 2020 he led the NFL, averaging 20.9 yards.

The Chiefs added another player, who can go the distance, in running back Ronald Jones II. The 24-year-old back was signed to a one-year deal, in which he can earn a maximum of $5 million.

Jones, who has averaged 4.5 yards per carry during his career, memorably ran for a 98-yard touchdown in 2020. That’s tied for the third longest run in NFL history.

That Jones outran the Carolina Panthers defense on the play shouldn’t come as a surprise.

He was a sprinter on USC’s track team in the spring of 2016. In his only appearance, he ran the third leg on USC’s victorious 400-meter relay team in the UCLA Dual, and the quartet clocked 39.89 seconds.

While in high school, he ran the 100 meters in 10.37 seconds (and won the 2015 district championships) and the 200 in 21.98 for the McKinney (Texas) North’s track team.

So both Jones and Valdes-Scantling can fly. The question is whether they can hold on to the ball.

Valdes-Scantling dropped 12 passes in his first three seasons combined, including muffing what should have been a 53-yard touchdown pass in Week 17 of the 2020 season.

Despite Jones’ big-play potential, he has seven fumbles the last three years.

The 5-11, 208-pound back fills a need on the Chiefs. Both running back Darrel Williams and Jerick McKinnon are free agents, and 2020 first-round pick Clyde Edwards-Helaire is talented but injury prone.

Edwards-Helaire has averaged 4.4 yards per carry and has reached at least 100 rushing yards in a game four times but has missed 10 games in his two years in the league.

The 27-year-old Valdes-Scantling has played four years in the league with the Green Bay Packers and is slated to spend the next few with Kansas City after signing a three-year, $30 million contract, including $18 million guaranteed.

That means he’ll likely earn over the duration of the contract what Hill averages annually.

Valdes-Scantling is not only a cheaper option than Hill, but also a much bigger target at 6-4 and 206 pounds.

Hill, though, is in a different tier talent-wise, and the six-time Pro Bowler has a gear that is faster than Valdes-Scantling — and maybe every other receiver in the NFL.

Hill has elite speed. He ran a 4.26 40-yard dash at his college pro day. While at Coffee High in Georgia, he ran the 200 meters in 20.14 seconds in 2012 — the second fastest high school mark at the time and one that would have placed him sixth at that year’s Olympics Games.

The trade of the speedy Hill to the Miami Dolphins was a major reason Valdes-Scantling signed with Kansas City.

“That was a huge factor,” he said. “With the departure of him, it gave me a really good opportunity to be in a position to come in and be an immediate impact right away.”