The Cowboys have one of the NFL’s premier receiving duos, rostering CeeDee Lamb and the franchise-tagged George Pickens. The team lost auxiliary pass catcher Jalen Tolbert in free agency and will make a depth addition Monday.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling is joining Dallas on a one-year deal, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports. The journeyman wide receiver spent last year with a few teams, moving from the Seahawks to the 49ers to the Steelers. The Cowboys are the ex-Packer draftee’s eighth NFL team. The Cowboys also met with WR nomad Tyler Johnson today, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets.
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The first six years of Valdes-Scantling’s career featured stability. He joined the Chiefs in free agency shortly after they traded Tyreek Hill, collecting two Super Bowl rings and making some crucial plays for both Kansas City championship iterations in 2022 and ’23. The Chiefs cut MVS in 2024, however, sending him on a nomadic course.
After a Bills signing, Valdes-Scantling played seldomly and was released. He made his way to the Saints and helped a depleted receiving corps to close the 2024 season. Those contributions led Seattle, which had hired 2024 New Orleans OC Klint Kubiak as its new play-caller, to sign off on a one-year deal worth $4MM. Valdes-Scantling, however, did not make the Seahawks’ 53-man roster and ended up on the 49ers’ practice squad. After San Francisco released MVS with an injury settlement in mid-October, a Steelers workout led to a reunion with Aaron Rodgers — as Pittsburgh searched for post-Pickens production alongside D.K. Metcalf.
Dallas did not draft a wideout until Round 7 (East Carolina’s Anthony Smith), and Tolbert signed with the Dolphins (one year, $1.4MM). Even with Pickens on a franchise tag — likely for all of 2026 — the Cowboys did not bring back Tolbert despite the low Miami salary. The team returns Ryan Flournoy as a supplementary target while also rostering All-Pro returner KaVontae Turpin and veterans Parris Campbell and Jonathan Mingo. The latter, a former second-round pick acquired in a trade, accepted a pay cut to stay in Dallas last month.
Mingo’s reworked deal includes no guaranteed money for 2026. Campbell also has no guarantees on his contract. That leaves the door open for Valdes-Scantling to earn a backup role. All three figure to be options for Dallas’ 16-man practice squad as well.
Valdes-Scantling, 31, caught 14 passes between his time in San Francisco and Pittsburgh last season. The Steelers turned to the former Rodgers Green Bay deep threat late in the season. With Metcalf suspended for the final two regular-season games, the Steelers used MVS on at least 81% of their offensive snaps in Weeks 17 and 18. He helped the team to a division-clinching win over the Ravens with five receptions for 34 yards.
The NFL’s yards per reception leader in 2020 (20.9), Valdes-Scantling topped 100 receiving yards in the 2022 AFC championship game — as the Chiefs deployed a skeleton crew at WR by game’s end — and then made some pivotal catches against the Bills, Ravens and 49ers to help the Chiefs to the Super Bowl LVIII title. MVS averaged 22.6 yards per catch in eight Saints games (all starts) two seasons ago, scoring four touchdowns. The Cowboys will hope to see some of that form this offseason.