Receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling has infamously struggled with drops throughout his career and had another in his preseason debut with the Bills on Saturday.
Valdes-Scantling had just one target late in the second quarter in the matchup with the Bears but couldn’t handle the pass from backup QB Mitchell Trubisky.
Buffalo signed Valdes-Scantling to a one-year deal in May, bringing him in to help fill out a revamped receiving corps for 2024. Despite what happened in the first preseason game, offensive coordinator Joe Brady said in his Tuesday press conference that Valdes-Scantling has been steadily progressing in the team’s offense.
“He obviously wants the drop back from the other day,” Brady said. “But I think you’ve seen — if you’ve been at these practices in the last few weeks, you can see his comfort level of him being able to make plays, both down the field [and] intermediate roles. He’s comfortable in the offense now. He handled — that one time when I wanted him to go down to the other field just to get more reps, he was excited about it, just getting the feel. And we earn the opportunity to just get all the reps with Josh [Allen] again.
“So, I’ve loved his mindset, his approach, how he kind of goes about it. And I’m not always focused on just a drop here and there. It’s more of like, hey, are you where you need to be? We’ll clean up the rest of the stuff. But Josh trusts him and he’s doing a really good job kind of flowing with it.”
Even with the comfort, Valdes-Scantling will need to show a better level of consistency when it comes to catching passes to carve out a true role with Buffalo in 2024.
