GREEN BAY, Wis. — Everyone knew Jordan Love, who’s dealing with a left thumb injury, would get only 12 snaps during joint practices between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks. And so there was Matthew Golden, the team’s first-round pick, on the field with the QB1 for a rare opportunity to get a genuinely competitive rep against another team.
On the second snap, Love’s pass went Golden’s way. The rookie wideout got his hands on it. But the ball fell to the ground: a drop. Love targeted Golden two more times, resulting in a pair of pass breakups. So if all a Packers fan saw was that session, he might be saying: This again?!
Green Bay, after all, had the second-highest drop rate (9.7%) and third-most drops (33) in the league last season, per FOX Sports research.
Packers first-round pick Matthew Golden in action against the Seahawks last weekend. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
But Golden had been terrific leading up to that joint session. And perhaps that’s why, after practice, he seemed to feel like it was simply an obstacle to overcome.
“You got to push through. It was one of them days,” Golden told me in the Packers’ locker room. “Mentally, I feel like I was right where I needed to be, on the details, being focused.”
He bounced back in the team’s preseason game against Seattle.
Backup quarterback Malik Willis tossed up a 50-50 ball to the 22-year-old receiver, who fought through cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett for a 39-yard reception that made Golden the leading receiver — and maybe the WR1 — for Green Bay on the night.
“What he got, you can’t teach,” third-year Packers receiver Jayden Reed said. “He’s a really good football player. He’s fast. Can’t teach that, man. He’s smooth in his routes. You can’t teach that. That work you put in, day in, day out — he showed that.”
Given the catch, his draft status (23rd overall), his blazing speed (fastest 40-yard time at the 2025 combine) and the Packers’ need for a WR1, Golden will have to manage high expectations.
“I think he can help us in any capacity that we need him to,” coach Matt LaFleur said.
Golden seems to recognize the expectations. When I asked him if he was aware of when the Packers had last drafted a receiver in Round 1, he told me: 2002. People have reminded him of that fact almost every day for the past few months. He acknowledged it was his dream to get drafted. And then he said this:
“It’s just been nothing but work since I touched foot here. So, man, I’m excited for being here, [with] the coaches and the gamers that now we have right here. I’m simply trying ahead to what’s in entrance of me.”
When Golden will get his fingers on the soccer, he can run by anybody. (Photograph by Justin Casterline/Getty Pictures)
Golden is a employee bee. That’s what all his teammates and coaches say about him. The factor that shocked him in regards to the NFL: He didn’t understand how a lot he didn’t learn about soccer.
“Now I am totally beginning to perceive the small issues,” Golden mentioned. “Going to Texas actually helped me, as a result of it was type of the identical offense. However coming right here, it is numerous completely different terminology. It is only a small factor that you just did not learn about route depth, simply completely different strategies and issues like that, with the ability to learn coverages. The transition was clean, and I am lastly beginning to really feel like I can simply go on the market and play.”
Golden began his school profession at Houston, the place his numbers over two seasons have been humble: 584 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns in 2022, then 404 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns in 2023. After he transferred to Texas, Golden’s professional prospects modified. He completed the 2024 season with 58 catches, 987 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns, all career-highs. He lit up the mix together with his uncommon athleticism — and 4.29-second 40-yard sprint.
Inexperienced Bay snagged Golden within the draft partially as a result of they’ve been looking for a No. 1 receiver for years — ever since they traded Davante Adams in 2022. There’s no scarcity of younger expertise, however nobody among the many Packers’ pass-catchers has really emerged as an alpha. From Reed to Romeo Doubs to Dontayvion Wicks to Christian Watson, the receivers have loved episodes of success.
However nobody has actually been Love’s man. Nobody has stretched the sector. Nobody has been uncoverable. Nobody has been a house run menace. Golden certainly hopes to be all of that for Love.
“It is every thing, simply having an ideal quarterback like [Love] — someone you would speak to, and simply attempt to perceive issues from his perspective,” Golden mentioned. “I do know what he likes and what he is seeing. So I attempt to get numerous suggestions from him. … So, when it does come sport time, we may be on the identical web page.”
Similar to Golden is understood for velocity, Love is understood for arm expertise. That’s no coincidence. In idea, these two are made for one another from an X’s and O’s standpoint. Every one can maximize the opposite’s uncommon items. It’s only a matter of getting the timing and — as Golden identified a number of instances throughout our dialog — “the small particulars” appropriate in LaFleur’s system.
They will should get the quarterback’s drop in tune with the receiver’s break. That course of moved sooner than Golden anticipated. And he admitted Love’s velocity and anticipation have been “positively” a shock within the early days of observe.
“A few of them laborious throws that you just in all probability seen in school, [NFL] quarterbacks are making that day by day, they usually make it look straightforward,” Golden mentioned. “For me, that is the large adjustment. [It] was simply realizing that each time I’m on my break, the ball goes to be proper the place it must be.”
The questions for Golden are two-fold: Will he be proper the place he must be? And can he catch the soccer when he will get there?
As a result of these are the straightforward but difficult parts of creating any top-flight receiver within the NFL. Love and LaFleur have been looking for somebody — anybody — who can do these issues with consistency. Perhaps they’ve lastly discovered it in Golden, the group’s first first-round choose at receiver since 2002.
And sure, Golden will drop the ball sooner or later — actually and metaphorically. He has to date confirmed, nevertheless, that these drops do not hassle him on the following play or within the subsequent sport. That would make all of the distinction.
Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years protecting the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports activities Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Observe him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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