SEATTLE -- The Seahawks plan to release wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, a source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler on Tuesday.
Valdes-Scantling, 30, had been viewed as a candidate to be traded or released even though Seattle guaranteed him $3 million for 2025.
The Seahawks signed the eighth-year veteran to a one-year, $4 million contract in March, expecting him to be their third receiver and to help replace some of the speed their offense lost after DK Metcalf was traded. He also had a connection to new coordinator Klint Kubiak, who had coached him last season with the New Orleans Saints.
But Valdes-Scantling was outperformed over the summer by rookie fifth-round pick Tory Horton, among others, and his chances of making the 53-man roster as anything but the third receiver seemed slim considering he doesn't play special teams.
The most recent evidence that he was in danger of not making the team came in the preseason finale, when he played the entire first half (three catches for 33 yards) despite the Seahawks resting all their starters and most of their veterans.
For now, the Seahawks will eat $3 million in dead money by releasing Valdes-Scantling while saving around $1 million in cap space. However, offset language in his contract will allow the team to recoup some or all of the $1.5 million he's still owed in guaranteed money based on what he makes from his next team.
A fifth-round pick by the Green Bay Packers in 2018, Valdes-Scantling has caught 205 passes for 3,566 yards and 20 touchdowns over his career. He spent the 2022 and '23 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, helping them win back-to-back Super Bowls, and appeared in six games in 2024 with the Buffalo Bills before he was released.
