The more I think about it, the more I think Justyn Ross might be worth a late-round pick. Kansas City has a wide-open situation at wide receiver, making it seem plausible that Ross could wind up with a meaningful role.
It’s a hopelessly convoluted situation, of course, with Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore, Rashee Ross, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Richie James all contending for starting jobs. Justin Watson last year played more than any of those guys. And Kansas City is among the teams that has shown interest in DeAndre Hopkins, who would trump them all.
But let’s think of it in this way. There will be an outside/vertical receiver in that offense. Valdes-Scantling held that role for all 20 of their games last year. If Ross is going to ascend to the starting lineup, that’s the spot he would be moving into. At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, he’s about the same size as MVS. I think it will be one of these big receivers as the primary receiver in that outside/vertical spot. All of the other receivers, I think, can be treated as a separate situation that needs to be untangled.
If we starting thinking in terms of picking either MVS or Ross, the idea of taking a flyer on Ross gets more palatable.
We’ve seen what MVS can do, after all, and it’s been underwhelming. In those 20 games last year, he caught 49 passes for 809 yards and 4 TDs. Valdes-Scantling finished with fewer than 30 yards in 11 of his 20 games last year, and he caught 0-1 passes in seven games. In the Superb Owl, he was on the field for almost two thirds of their plays but had only one pass thrown in his direction (an incompletion). Note that he ran mostly deep routes, averaging 16.4 yards per reception.
It seems conceivable that Ross might move into that role, perhaps giving them a little more. He looked like a first-round pick early in his tenure at Clemson. He wasn’t drafted last year, but that had more to do with spinal and foot surgeries that made him a medical question mark.
Ross looks healthy now. Patrick Mahomes was talking him up in April after getting his receivers together for some work. And the team posted a video on Twitter yesterday of Ross catching a long touchdown. (In the video on YouTube, you'll see a nice one-handed catch about 55 seconds in, and the touchdown catch down the right sideline about 10 seconds later.)
“Justyn is coming along,” Andy Reid said at OTAs yesterday. “He feels good, his foot feels good, the surgery that he had worked out well up to this point. He’s made some nice plays for us out here. I know Pat’s got trust in him, so that’s good to see.”
It’s wildly up in the air, of course, but I’m thinking Ross at some point will move into the starting lineup. With a late-round pick, I’d rather have the unknown of Ross rather than 600 yards and 3 TDs out of Valdes-Scantling.
If the question is, “Who will finish with better stats this year?” I think MVS is the answer. If the question instead is, “Which guy has a chance to maybe turn into something statistically decent?” Then I think Ross.
—Ian Allan