There will be some adjustments made to Kansas City’s receiving corps in the offseason. Neither JuJu Smith-Schuster nor Marquez Valdes-Scantling is sure to be back, and I’m expecting both Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore will play larger roles.
Smith-Schuster, I’m thinking, looks like the KC wide receiver who’s most likely to catch the most passes. He caught 88 passes in 19 games in the just-completed season. He was signed to a one-year deal, and I expect they’ll want to bring him back.
Valdes-Scantling, on the other hand, looks like a candidate to move on. He’s got base salaries of $8.6 million and $11.6 million the next two years, and I don’t think they’ll have any interest in bringing him back at that price. He was used primarily a space-clearing deep threat. He averaged 16.4 yards per catch in the regular season but caught only 42 passes in those 17 games.
Toney and Moore both caught touchdowns in the Super Bowl, but neither actually played that much in the game. They were on the field for only 6 and 14 of the team’s 55 plays, respectively. I would think both should be playing a lot more in the 2023 season. Toney is a former first-round pick who at times has looked like a special talent – mainly with him, it’s a matter of staying healthy. With Moore, he hasn’t done much but was selected in the second round (also way too early to be giving up on him).
With Moore, his touchdown on Sunday was the first of the season. Looking into that, I was surprised to see that it happens more often in Super Bowls than you would think.
In the 57 Super Bowls, 16 times a player hasn’t caught a touchdown in the regular season but has then caught one in the Super Bowl. Four players have caught touchdowns in the Super Bowl after not even catching a pass in the regular season. Percy Howard (who played briefly with the Cowboys in the ’70s) is the headliner of this club: his only catch as a pro was a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
The last time Arizona hosted this game, Chris Matthews put together perhaps the most unlikely receiving day in Super Bowl history. Having never caught a pass as a pro, Matthews caught 4 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown (for the Seahawks in their loss against New England). The other two of those four touchdown catchers in Super Bowls were of the outlier variety: linebacker Mike Vrabel lining up as a tight end, and quarterback Nick Foles catching his Philly Special.
Below are the 16 players who’ve not caught touchdowns in the regular season, then caught touchdowns in the Big Game. The stats show their regular-season receiving numbers. Eight of the players are tagged with black dots; those are the guys who had never before caught a touchdown at the NFL level.
| FIRST TOUCHDOWN CATCH IN A SUPER BOWL | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pos | Player | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
| 1970 | RB | • Duane Thomas, Dall. | 10 | 73 | 7.3 | 0 |
| 1975 | WR | • Percy Howard, Dall. | 0 | 0 | .0 | 0 |
| 1978 | WR | Butch Johnson, Dall. | 12 | 155 | 12.9 | 0 |
| 1980 | RB | • Kenny King, Oak. | 22 | 145 | 6.6 | 0 |
| 1981 | RB | Earl Cooper, S.F. | 51 | 477 | 9.4 | 0 |
| 1982 | WR | Alvin Garrett, Was. | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 |
| 1991 | RB | Earnest Byner, Was. | 34 | 308 | 9.1 | 0 |
| 1994 | RB | • William Floyd, S.F. | 19 | 145 | 7.6 | 0 |
| 2003 | LB | Mike Vrabel, N.E. | 0 | 0 | .0 | 0 |
| 2004 | WR | • Greg Lewis, Phil. | 17 | 183 | 10.8 | 0 |
| 2007 | WR | David Tyree, NYG | 4 | 35 | 8.8 | 0 |
| 2008 | TE | Ben Patrick, Ariz. | 11 | 104 | 9.5 | 0 |
| 2011 | RB | Danny Woodhead, N.E. | 18 | 157 | 8.7 | 0 |
| 2014 | WR | • Chris Matthews, Sea. | 0 | 0 | .0 | 0 |
| 2017 | QB | • Nick Foles, Phil. | 0 | 0 | .0 | 0 |
| 2022 | WR | • Skyy Moore, K.C. | 22 | 250 | 11.4 | 0 |
—Ian Allan