ORCHARD PARK - Maybe by the end of the summer, the Buffalo Bills’ signing of wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling will be viewed as taking a swing on a 3-0 count.

You’ve got an opportunity to do some real damage if you get a meatball over the middle of the plate and launch it out of the park, or maybe you miss and it’s no harm, no foul, live to see another pitch.

Obviously, the Bills are hoping for the former because as they remake their wide receiver room, Valdes-Scantling’s skill set is one that they need to round things out.

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Signed on May 14 to a one-year free agent deal after playing four seasons with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and the last two in Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes, the 6-foot-4 Valdes-Scantling brings ideal height, but even more important, great deep speed which makes him a legitimate vertical threat. That’s something the Bills have lacked on the outside for most of Josh Allen’s time in Buffalo.

“I’ve been one of the better deep threats in the league for the majority of my career,” Valdes-Scantling said with a brush of confidence. “I’m gonna attract a lot of attention anytime I’m on the field. And so, just being able to go out there and do whatever needs to help the team win, I’m all for it, man. I’ve had to do it before, and sometimes those balls get thrown at you.”

Such as last January when Valdes-Scantling made two huge plays for the Chiefs when they defeated the Bills in the divisional playoff game at Highmark Stadium.

On the first play of the third quarter, he lined up in the slot and drew man coverage from Taron Johnson who is five inches shorter. Patrick Mahomes recognized the matchup and Valdes-Scantling ran a seam route and despite tight coverage, he made a superb catch for a 30-yard gain. Five plays later the Chiefs were in the end zone and in the lead, 20-17.

Then later in the third, after the Bills had regained a 24-20 advantage, Valdes-Scantling struck again. On a second-and-7 from the Buffalo 48, he was again in the slot and ran a route where he found a hole in zone coverage between Rasul Douglas and Micah Hyde and Mahomes hit for a 32-yard gain. That big play led to Isaiah Pacheco scoring what proved to be the winning touchdown.

On a day when he had catches of 30 and 32 yards, the Bills’ longest reception was 15 yards. For his career, Valdes-Scantling’s average depth of target it 16.3 yards and his yards per reception is 17.0.

They are different receivers, and no one would consider Valdes-Scantling a better player than Stefon Diggs, but for comparison, Diggs’ average depth of target is 11.2 yards and his yards per catch is 12.3.

A closer comparison would be the career of John Brown who was with the Bills in 2019, 2020 and part of 2022 and was always considered a vertical threat. His career depth of target was 15.5 yards and his yards per catch was 14.9.

Valdes-Scantling has another intangible that could prove useful: He has always played for a winner, and of course, he already has two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks who trusted him to catch a combined 186 passes for 3,155 yards and 16 TDs, plus another 24 for 406 yards and four TDs in 11 playoff games, one of the TDs’ coming in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory last year.

“Yeah, man, I guess they follow me around or something,” Valdes-Scantling said of playing for great quarterbacks now that he may be adding Allen to his list if he makes the team. “I’ve just had great opportunities. Winning two Super Bowls and being part of those teams in Green Bay, watching Aaron win MVPs and be a part of that. So hopefully I can keep bringing over good stuff. Hopefully we can get Josh an MVP and a Super Bowl this year.”

When Valdes-Scantling popped up on the Bills’ radar, Allen took notice, and he took the somewhat unusual step of helping convince him to come to Buffalo. He invited Valdes-Scantling to his home and they hung out, watched the NBA playoffs, and got to know each other.

“We connected right away,” Valdes-Scantling said. “Usually when you come on a visit you go out to eat with the staff and talk with them. But Josh was like, ‘Nah, I want you to come over to the house.’ That was our first interaction.”

Allen said, “Just having him over and listening to him talk. Obviously he’s been around two of the best quarterbacks to play the game. He’s very smart, he sees things through the lens of a quarterback. And when you put that type of mindset in a guy, especially with his tools, he’s tall, he’s very fast, he’s given us problems the last couple of years.

“He’s gonna be able to try to help us win football games. Just again, utilizing his experience and trusting what he has to say and just trying to build a rapport with him and move forward as quickly as we can with him.”

When Sean McDermott last spoke to reporters, OTAs were just beginning so he had hardly seen Valdes-Scantling at all on the field. But like Allen, he’s intrigued by the experiences that the 29-year-old has had and how that would benefit the Bills.

“He’s won two Super Bowls, if I’m not mistaken, and played with good offenses, good quarterbacks and you learn from those situations, right, when you go through those,” McDermott said. “And I’ve enjoyed our short, albeit, time together, just learning some of the things that he’s picked up along the way.”

McDermott will have some tough calls to make when it’s time to choose the 53-man roster. You would expect that Curtis Samuel, Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir will be the top three receivers, and Valdes-Scantling will be in a group along with three other free agent signings, Chase Claypool, Mack Hollins, and K.J. Hamler, along with young holdovers Justin Shorter and Tyrell Shavers to fight it out for the bottom three spots.

Right now, if you were to rank those six, Valdes-Scantling would have to be No. 1, and if Coleman needs time to assimilate to the NFL, Valdes-Scantling could even become a starter.

“Everybody’s good,” he said of the Bills’ depth chart. “There’s talented guys in every NFL receiver room. It’s all about the situation that you’re put in. And so, it didn’t really matter where I went, I was ready to compete and however that laid out is how I was gonna lay out.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Marquez Valdes-Scantling brings deep threat, Super Bowl rings to Bills