The Green Bay Packers have been searching for a top-flight broad receiver ever since they traded Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders previous to the 2022 NFL season. They suppose they might have discovered one in Matthew Golden.
Inexperienced Bay has not had a 1,000-yard receiver since 2021, when Adams set profession and franchise highs with 1,553 yards on 123 catches. Allen Lazard led the staff the next yr with 788 yards and Jayden Reed topped the membership every of the final two seasons with 793 and 857 yards, respectively.
In an try to offer quarterback Jordan Love with a bonafide No. 1 weapon, the Packers did one thing in April that they hadn’t performed in additional than 20 years – choose a large receiver within the first spherical of the NFL draft. By taking Golden with the twenty third total choose, Inexperienced Bay drafted a wideout within the opening spherical for the primary time since deciding on Javon Walker twentieth total in 2002.
Nonetheless, Golden did not document 1,000 receiving yards in a season throughout his collegiate profession. He made 38 catches for 584 yards with the Houston Cougars in 2022 and hauled in the identical quantity of passes for 404 yards the next yr earlier than transferring to Texas, the place he gained 987 yards on 58 receptions for the Longhorns final marketing campaign.
That is likely one of the causes SportsLine prop betting knowledgeable Alex Selesnick has made Golden Underneath 700.5 receiving yards, which presently is priced at -110 at DraftKings Sportsbook, as his No. 1 wide receiver player prop pick for the 2025 season. Selesnick enters the marketing campaign with a 524-418 document on his NFL picks.
“He struggled in opposition to man protection in faculty, and that sometimes results in a steep studying curve within the NFL,” Selesnick instructed SportsLine.
Getting the 22-year-old Golden the soccer typically sufficient to ensure that him to realize a considerable amount of yards in his rookie season might show troublesome. After ending eighth in completions (372) and seventh in passing yards (4,159) in his first yr as Inexperienced Bay’s beginning QB in 2023, Love was twentieth (268) and nineteenth (3,389), respectively, final yr. He did miss two video games, however he nonetheless would not have eclipsed the earlier yr’s numbers had he performed.
The Packers nonetheless have the wideout trio of Reed, Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks, and so they additionally added Mecole Hardman to the receiving corps by way of free company. Reed made at the very least 55 catches throughout every of Love’s two seasons as Inexperienced Bay’s starter, Doubs hauled in additional than 45 passes each years and Wicks has completed with 39 receptions in back-to-back campaigns.
As well as, the Packers have been tied for fifth within the NFL final yr with 526 dashing makes an attempt. Josh Jacobs ranked sixth with 301 of these carries and posted the fourth 1,000-yard season of his profession with 1,329, which additionally was sixth within the league.
“Golden is becoming a member of a run-first offense with numerous competitors for targets,” Selesnick mentioned.
Even when Inexperienced Bay places extra of an emphasis on the passing sport in 2025 and Love returns to his kind from two seasons in the past, it is going to be troublesome for him to get Golden the quantity of receptions he’d doubtless have to rack up greater than 700 yards. And since he is a rookie that’s a part of a bunch of wideouts that encompasses a pair of 25-year olds (Reed, Doubs) and a 24-year previous (Wicks), Selesnick likes Golden to go Underneath 700.5 receiving yards in 2025.