In 2025, the Green Bay Packers made recent franchise history, drafting a wide receiver in the first round for the first time since 2002 in Texas’ Matthew Golden. Golden didn’t have the most impressive rookie season, seeing the field on a majority of offensive snaps in only eight of his 14 games and finishing with just 361 yards, but his selection is starting to pay dividends so far in 2026.
The speedster caught his first career touchdown pass in a Thursday Night Football defeat against the Atlanta Falcons, and with both Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks now off the roster, Golden has taken on a bigger role this season. He should continue to be one of Jordan Love’s primary targets, making him fantasy-viable, especially if the Packers’ run game continues to be useless.
Green Bay will have a friendly matchup in Week 4 against the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are 0-3 and just lost starting quarterback Baker Mayfield for at least the next few weeks.
Results and Usage
The Packers have had to lean heavily on the wide receiver duo of Golden and Christian Watson this season, as they lead the team in snap counts among skill position players. After seeing the field on 53% of Green Bay’s offensive snaps last season, he’s up to 83% so far, with Watson right behind at 82%. Watson and Golden have also combined for 59 of Love’s 124 targets, with Golden garnering 30 and Watson 29; no other wideout has been thrown to more than 11 times.
Golden hasn’t been incredibly efficient, hauling in only 15 of those 30 targets, but his overall numbers (253 yards and a score) have been impressive, and by fantasy standards, he’s been WR13 so far. All in all, he ranks 20th by Pro Football Focus’ overall offensive grades, 24 places higher than he finished his rookie campaign. His blazing speed has helped in a variety of ways; he’s generated 2.6 yards of average separation per route, a far better figure than Watson, and he’s managed to gain 1.3 yards per catch after the reception over expectation, the 30th-best mark in the league so far. His drops have been a major issue — he’s dropped one of his targets in each game — but he’s been effective enough on his routes that Love has still posted a respectable 90.0 passer rating when throwing to him.
This season, the Packers’ three leading receiving targets cover all three levels; tight end Tucker Kraft’s average target comes 7.6 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, Watson’s 10.5 yards, and Golden’s 13.5 yards. The fact that Green Bay’s top targets have complementary skill sets bodes well for its offense in the long term, and Golden’s status as a deep threat gives him a high fantasy ceiling. Only Davante Adams, Dalton Kincaid, Chris Olave, Tee Higgins, CeeDee Lamb, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Watson have more 20-plus-yard catches than Golden’s four.
Future Outlook
So far this season, the Packers rank second in passing attempts and dead last in rushing attempts, which should be the case as long as running backs MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks, and Kaleb Johnson continue to struggle. Golden should remain a fantasy asset as a result; Love has been poor, ranking just 23rd in passer rating and fourth-to-last by PFF’s grades, but Green Bay simply has no better alternatives. It’s also unrealistic to expect Love to maintain the league’s second-highest bad throw percentage, given that he was off-target at the 11th-lowest clip last season, so Golden will become even more of an asset as Love starts to find him in stride.
In theory, Golden’s skill set lines up with Love’s strengths. Last season, he was one of the best deep passers in football, posting a 95.3 passing grade on throws of 20 or more yards downfield, and while he’s struggled mightily with longer passes so far this season, he’s been the ninth-best passer on throws of 10-to-19 yards, where Golden has been at his sharpest. The Packers’ awful pass protection hasn’t helped matters, especially since Love has been the league’s worst quarterback under pressure this season, but throwing to a more open Golden could be a more appealing proposition for Love than threading the needle to Watson, a contested-catch wizard who struggles to generate separation.
Either way, Golden should be a must-start against Tampa Bay. In the aggregate, the Buccaneers haven’t been that terrible defensively, as they’ve allowed the sixth-fewest fantasy points per game to opposing wideouts, but they’ve been pretty gettable on a per-play basis, conceding the sixth-highest completion percentage and the 14th-highest passer rating. Tampa Bay has also gotten pressure at a below-average rate, mitigating Love’s biggest weakness and giving him more time in the pocket to find Golden. Plus, I expect the Buccaneers’ offense to be inefficient with Jalon Daniels under center in place of Baker Mayfield, so Green Bay should spend more time than it’s used to in possession.
