The Packers broke the seal in drafting a wide receiver in the first round for the first time since 2002, selecting Matthew Golden at No. 23 overall.
Let's examine Golden's 2025 fantasy football outlook and Dynasty value.
Don't Miss Out on The Best Fantasy Football Coverage in the Business
Like the NFL, fantasy football never sleeps, and the NFL Draft means Dynasty season is in full gear.
Get Rich Hribar's rookie profiles, rookie rankings, and full Dynasty rankings in our Fantasy Football Draft Kit.
The Draft Kit also has everything you need to dominate your season leagues, from the best draft strategies to in depth outlooks for all the top fantasy football players.
Save more by bundling the Draft Kit with our in-season fantasy package that features Rich's comprehensive “Worksheet” preview of every game, every week of the NFL season.
Click here for more information about our fantasy coverage!
Matthew Golden 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook
After two seasons at Houston, Golden joined Texas to restock their receiver room, which had been purged with their top four pass catchers leaving for the NFL.
After catching 76 passes for 988 yards and 13 touchdowns in those two years with Houston, Golden plucked 58 passes for 987 yards and 9 touchdowns over 16 games with Texas.
He only averaged 3.7 receptions per game over his collegiate career, 24th in this class.
His 54.9 receiving yards per game rank 20th among this crop of wideouts.
Golden does not have a season in college with 2.0 yards per team pass attempt, a rare feat for a player drafted in the first round.
His best mark in yards per route run was 2.10 yards this past season, 31st in this class.
Against man coverage, Golden posted 0.92 yards per route run (46th).
However, there are positives in his profile that support the draft position.
Golden played his best football of his career to close the year when it mattered the most.
He averaged 95.0 receiving yards per game over his final six games of the year.
Golden had 411 yards in the college postseason, averaging 21.6 yards per catch.
He did not stack a ton of career receptions, but 16.4% of his career receptions went for touchdowns, the third highest rate in this class.
50.6% of his targets this past season resulted in a first down or a touchdown, which is eighth in this class.
He can create explosives in the passing game.
This past year, Golden pulled down 59.1% (13 of 22) of his targets on throws 20 or more yards downfield.
No receiver in this class caught a higher rate of those targets while matching Golden’s volume.
He also comes with the ability to contribute to special teams.
Golden averaged 25.8 yards per kickoff return over his career.
The other element in play for Golden regarding his profile is that we are coming off a year in which the Texas wideouts from 2023 underperformed their draft stock.
If you go back to last year’s prospect write-ups, Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell performed well below their draft capital during their final season with Texas.
What stands out is how soft Worthy’s and Mitchell’s production versus man coverage was, despite being players who had athletic leverage in college.
Is this a situation where the wide receivers cannibalize each other, a system issue, or a Quinn Ewers issue?
Considering that Worthy was productive before Ewers took over, and he is a common denominator here, it is not hard to talk yourself into the latter.
Worthy and Mitchell regularly got open as rookies in the NFL, too.
Golden is a smooth mover, and we know that the NFL values measured speed.
Golden ran the fastest 40-yard dash (4.29) and tied for the fastest 10-yard split (1.49) at the position at the NFL Combine at 5-foot-11 and 191 pounds.
Golden does take a step of faith, but it is still based on his top-down profile.
He would not be the first speed demon with a light production profile to be selected highly.
Even if we are leaning on Ewers damaging his output, the closest player comparisons Golden draws in my prospect model are Phillip Dorsett, Anthony Gonzalez, A.J. Jenkins, and Henry Ruggs.
Golden is someone I am hesitant to invest premium capital in rookie drafts aggressively right now, but this is a solid fit for his skill set and the Packers' current receiver situation.
Christian Watson is in the final season of his rookie contract.
Watson's situation is more complicated because he is expected to miss a chunk of the upcoming season due to an ACL injury he suffered in Week 18.
Without Watson on the field this season, Jordan Love averaged 7.0 yards per attempt compared to 8.8 Y/A with Watson on the field.
Golden allows them to have that field stretcher, which was important to the offense.
The Packers also had an approach that made Love resemble Russell Wilson.
The Packers' dropback rate was 31st, but when they did throw, Love took layups or threw the rock downfield.
Love threw the ball at the intermediate levels only 16.9% of the time (23rd) and threw deep 16.0%, the second highest rate in the league behind Anthony Richardson (22.7%).
That light passing volume does make Golden a tough 2025 redraft investment in a receiver room that struggled to find weekly consistency through Jayden Reed, Watson, and Romeo Doubs.
For Dynasty purposes, Watson and Doubs are unrestricted free agents after 2025, keeping the situation fluid for added target potential.
TL;DR Fantasy Impact Notes
- Back-end first round rookie pick and boom-or-bust WR4 in 2025 seasonal formats.