The San Francisco 49ers bolstered their banged-up receiver corps by agreeing to a one-year deal with Marquez Valdes-Scantling after he was cut by Seattle, a person with knowledge of the deal said Wednesday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been officially announced.
The Niners had only two healthy receivers on the 53-man roster following roster cut downs on Tuesday with Ricky Pearsall and recently acquired Skyy Moore.
Valdes-Scantling provides another as well as needed speed on the outside to stretch the field.
The 30-year-old Valdez-Scantling split time last season with Buffalo and New Orleans, recording 19 catches for 411 yards and four TDs. He has 205 career catches for 3,566 yards and 20 TDs in seven seasons that also included time in Green Bay and Kansas City.
Valdez-Scantling’s 17.4 yards per reception for his career rank fourth-best among all players with at least 200 catches since 1990.
Valdez-Scantling’s biggest production came in Green Bay and Kansas City where he was a dependable deep threat for Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. He also had some big postseason performances with 24 catches for 406 yards and four TDs in 11 playoff games. He caught a TD pass from Mahomes against the 49ers in Super Bowl 58 when he helped Kansas City beat San Francisco 25-22 in overtime.
The Niners had major questions at receiver following cutdown day. Demarcus Robinson was suspended for the first three games of the season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and Brandon Aiyuk will miss at least the first four weeks on the physically unable to perform list recovering from knee surgery.
Jauan Jennings has missed almost all of camp with a calf injury and is also seeking a new contract. Jacob Cowing is expected to miss at least the first month with a hamstring injury and rookie Jordan Watkins has been out with an ankle injury but could return soon.
The 49ers open the season against at Seattle on Sept. 7 with Valdes-Scantling going up against the team he was on for the entire offseason.
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