Pressure on Golden for Breakout Second Year
Matthew Golden scored his first career touchdown in the Bears playoff game. Golden, as well as Christian Watson, will be counted on for bigger roles in 2026.
Matthew Golden enters his second year as an NFL player with a much bigger role than he had as a rookie.
With a bigger responsibility in 2026, comes more pressure to live up to his status as a former first round pick.
Heading into the 2026 season, for the first time in years, the Green Bay Packers have a clearly defined starting group of wide receivers. Barring a preseason injury, the Week 1 starting outside wide receivers will be Christian Watson and Golden, and the starting slot receiver will be newly-extended Jayden Reed.
Who's a WR3 you think has WR1 potential? 👀 @tweetsbychadpic.twitter.com/iyOTCUs6VT
— FantasyPros (@FantasyPros) May 26, 2026
Golden entered last season as just the third Packers wide receiver to be drafted in the first round in the last 40 years. He joined Sterling Sharpe and Javon Walker who were picked in 1988 and 2002, respectively.
In the cases of both Sharpe and Walker, after not hitting the 1,000-yard receiving mark as rookies, they both did not hit their strides as No. 1 level targets into their second and third seasons.
Packers 1st Round Wide Receivers since 1988
| Player | Rookie Year | 2nd Year | 3rd Year |
| Sterling Sharpe | 1988 - 55, 791, 1 | 1989 - 90, 1423, 12 | 1990 - 67, 1105, 6 |
| Javon Walker | 2002 - 23, 319, 1 | 2003 - 41, 716, 9 | 2004 - 89, 1382, 12 |
| Matthew Golden | 2025 - 29, 361, 0 |
Golden enters his second year coming off an impressive performance in the Packers playoff loss to the Bears. He had four catches for 84 yards and his first career touchdown. This is similar to Walker who had five catches for 105 yards in a playoff loss in 2022, which led to his improvement in his second year.
THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER!
Matthew Golden scores his first NFL touchdown! pic.twitter.com/Ikz1BFcCAB
— SleeperPackers (@SleeperPackers) January 11, 2026
The last time the Packers had three wide receivers in preseason that were the clear top guys at those three positions was likely all the way back in 2017. The trio of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams were coming off their best collective season (2016) as a group.
In the last decade, the Packers had the established No. 1 in Adams for four seasons (2018 to 2021) and have had several complimentary wide receivers, but under head coach Matt LaFleur, they haven’t had much consistency with which receivers would be producing from week to week.
The trio of Adams, Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were the top three wide receivers from 2019 to 2021, but Geronimo Allison and Randall Cobb were also key contributors in two of those three seasons.
There have been glimpses of elite play from the two returning veterans, Watson and Reed, but injuries and at times, limited opportunities have gotten in the way of either being 1,000 yard receivers.
Packers Top 3 Wide Receivers 2016-2025
| Year | WR 1 | WR 2 | WR 3 |
| 2016 | Nelson 87, 1257, 14 | Adams 75, 997, 12 | Cobb 60, 610, 4 |
| 2017 | Adams 74, 885, 10 | Cobb 66, 653, 4 | Nelson 53, 582, 6 |
| 2018 | Adams 111, 1386, 13 | Valdes-Scantling 38, 581, 2 | Cobb 38, 383, 2 |
| 2019 | Adams 83, 997, 5 | Lazard 35, 477, 3 | Valdes-Scantling 26, 452, 2 |
| 2020 | Adams 115, 1374, 18 | Valdes-Scantlng 33, 690, 6 | Lazard 33, 451, 3 |
| 2021 | Adams 123, 1553, 11 | Lazard 40, 513, 8 | Valdes-Scantling 26, 430, 3 |
| 2022 | Lazard 60, 788, 6 | Watson 41, 611, 7 | Doubs 42, 425, 3 |
| 2023 | Reed 64, 793, 8 | Doubs 59, 674, 8 | Watson 28, 422, 5 |
| 2024 | Reed 55, 887, 6 | Doubs 46, 601, 4 | Watson 29, 620, 2 |
| 2025 | Doubs 55, 724, 6 | Watson 35, 611, 6 | Golden 29, 361, 0 |
The Packers are counting on Golden replacing the production lost by both Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks who both departed in the offseason. Doubs was one of the team’s top three wide receivers in all four years of his career.
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Mitch McLaughlin is a Packers fan and shareholder residing in Sacramento, California. He will be writing Packers stories each week on Cheesehead TV. He can be found on Twitter: @McLaughlinMitch
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Comments (13)
stockholder
May 26, 2026 at 02:53 pm
Can Love get them the ball will be the bigger issue??
Who will Love Feed.
Coldworld
May 26, 2026 at 04:22 pm
If we can find a blocking TE to pair with him I’d feed Kraft over and over.
golfpacker61
May 26, 2026 at 05:19 pm
As long as his arm holds out Love should be able to get all of them catches. Why wouldn't he?
Leatherhead
May 27, 2026 at 02:00 pm
Our #3 WR last year, in terms of being "fed", was Wicks, with 46 targets. Golden got 44 as a rookie. Reed got targeted 22 times in 7 games, which would translate out to over 50 targets in 17 games. Watson got 55 targets in 10 games, which would translate out to over 90 targets in 17 games.
And of course, Kraft, who was our leading receiver when he got hurt.
All in all, if Watson, Reed, and Kraft all stay on the field this year (and I hope they do), I would NOT expect big numbers from Golden. Of course, he can impact the game in other ways, and he's clearly our #3 WR going into this season, but if we're expecting 80 catches for 10 TDs, we're likely to be disappointed.
BuckyBadger
May 26, 2026 at 04:04 pm
Need someone to step up and be the guy who can move the chains. I don't like to put much pressure on WRs until the 3rd year but Golden will have to be big this year. If he can the starting WRs of Watson, Golden, Reed and Kraft should allow for the run game to move if they can block at all. Hopefully Jacobs is good for another year and the offense should be just fine.
Coldworld
May 26, 2026 at 04:16 pm
Golden is assumed to be taking over from Doubs by most. If that is the case, he’s going to need to have improved in contact and the accuracy and consistency of his route running if this O is similar to that of recent years. I’m still not convinced that’s a good use of his current abilities or of his athleticism.
I hope I’m proved wrong or that the O has been adapted to make use of his speed and minimize the demands on his physicality and route complexity. If not, there’s a risk we are wasting talent by misuse.
Perhaps they shock us all and in fact rotate Golden with Watson and Reed and have a less athletically exciting but more Doubs-like bigger guy out there a lot more than expected. Shepherd perhaps ( or Williams if he has learned the route tree).
Since'75
May 26, 2026 at 04:16 pm
Golden may feel some pressure, and hopefully he embraces it and he doesn't think it's that big of a thing.
That would entail confidence, which is mandatory in this league.
*******
I think MLf and Guter feel more pressure, especially Guter, he doesn't need another an under achieving 1st round pick.
Especially after the way Murphy announced him....acting like they just won the Super Bowl.
Glad he's gone now, but the question remains, is Policy any better?
WestCoastPackerBacker
May 26, 2026 at 04:32 pm
I would phrase this differently. Golden has opportunities in his second season.
golfpacker61
May 26, 2026 at 05:25 pm
Exactly West Coast. Watson, Kraft, & Reed would be the "perceived" biggest options. I would be happy if everyone stayed healthy and Reed caught 40-45 balls and averaged 18 YPC. He will be overlooked for a while by the defenses we face. Could have a big season because of it.
TKWorldWide
May 26, 2026 at 07:32 pm
Talent meets opportunity. Let’s go. 🏈
PhantomII
May 26, 2026 at 09:33 pm
The real pressure should be on ML designing plays for all the WR's to exploit other teams with their strengths....GPG
Leatherhead
May 27, 2026 at 02:03 pm
I would not want to see the Packers throw the ball much more than last year. We threw it 8 more times than the Seahawks did. We're throwing it enough.
PhantomII
May 27, 2026 at 09:07 pm
Okay just for you...throw it to WR's / TE's /RB's with WELL DESIGNED plays that keep the other teams Offense off the field until WE SCORE 7 points...not 3...and especially not a 3 n out. A legit TE Vet would be good to help the run game get and stay going especially with Kraft coming back from injury....Also a Vet DE better than what we know we have opposite Parsons...