GREEN BAY — Matt LaFleur makes a reasonable, logical, compelling argument. The Green Bay Packers head coach certainly has had ample opportunity to craft and refine his case.

For going on three years now, his Packers offense has worked off the play-calling equivalent of one of those framed motivational/inspirational Successories posters that were so popular in the 1990s:

Together

Everyone

Achieves

More

That’s why, as the Packers’ offensive play-caller, LaFleur has worked so hard to spread the ball around — to Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, to Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, to Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft.

“You go into a game, and guys get excited if they think they have a legitimate shot at getting the ball. So, you have plays for each guy,” LaFleur explained earlier this week. “You want to get ‘em all involved.”

But after what first-round draft pick Matthew Golden showed in last Sunday’s 27-18 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, it might be time to amend his approach slightly.

Like, to get the rookie wide receiver more involved than he has been in the first five games.

Against the Bengals, Golden caught three passes for 86 yards — a 20-yarder in the first quarter to help set up a field goal; a 35-yarder in the second quarter on third-and-10 from Green Bay’s 30-yard line to set up the Packers’ first touchdown; and a 31-yarder on third-and-8 from the Green Bay 40 late in the fourth quarter to set up another field goal that gave the Packers a two-score lead. Golden also had two 8-yard runs on end-arounds.

Add in his clutch 14-yard catch on fourth-and-8 from the Packers’ 24-yard line in overtime against Dallas to keep the final drive alive to tie the game as time expired, and Golden has been a key cog in the offense the past two weeks after tallying only six catches for 68 yards on eight targets in his first three NFL games.

Golden enters Sunday’s road game against the Arizona Cardinals having caught 14 passed for 212 yards (a 15.1-yard average) on 19 targets. Seven of his receptions have resulted in first downs; of the five incompletions quarterback Jordan Love has thrown with Golden as the target, none has been the result of a drop.

Love’s passer rating when targeting Golden is 110.0 — even though they’ve yet to connect on a touchdown pass, although they had a pair of near-misses in the Packers’ Week 2 win over Washington, when Love slightly overthrew Golden on what might’ve been a 92-yard touchdown and another that Love just barely underthrew that would’ve been a 33-yard score.

“He made some big-time plays today,” Love said of Golden after Sunday’s win. “I think he’s a guy that we’re going to keep trying to get going and keep finding ways to get him the ball, because he’s done some really good things.

“It’s always about trying to spread it around, but he’s definitely a very explosive playmaker and just got to keep finding ways to get it to him.”

Now, no one is suggesting that LaFleur has been operating the offense like he’s running a Little League baseball team that requires everyone on the roster to play two innings, even if they’re spending most of that time picking dandelions in right field.   

All that would be required here would be a few tweaks to his play-call sheet to move up in the rotation some of the plays designed for Golden to be the No. 1 read in Love’s progressions.

“I feel like you ask me this question every week. And it’s tough,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich replied to yet another last week about how targets are dispersed in the Packers’ system. “You have your play. You’re like, ‘This is the coverage we’re trying to catch.’ If we get it, here’s the shot to whoever. But [if not], it’s a check down to Tucker or Josh Jacobs or something like that. And that’s a pretty good play as well because those guys can make some plays.

“Any time you’re going into a game plan, you want to have X amount of plays for this guy. You can only call so many, so you’ve got to be real selective with it and just make sure you’re trying to get ’em called. And some games, the flow goes and you’re able to call those plays. And then some games, it doesn’t happen or you don’t catch the right coverages. So, it’s just kind of an up-and-down thing.”

It’s not as if LaFleur, Stenavich and the rest of the Packers’ offensive coaching staff are unaware of what makes Golden special — beyond him becoming organization’s first wide receiver selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in 23 years.

But he certainly hasn’t achieved Davante Adams-level status yet, with the way Adams was the undeniable go-to guy for four-time NFL MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers, with three 100-plus reception seasons over a four-year period. And truth be told, that happened in an era where the Packers lacked top-flight options at their No. 2 and 3 receiver spots and tight end.

For LaFleur, the quandary is trying to figure out where he can shift passing-game targets from to get Golden even more opportunities.

So far this season, Doubs leads the Packers in targets (28, with nine of them coming against the Bengals), followed by Kraft (22), Golden (19) and Wicks (18). No other would-be pass catcher has hit double digits, although the absences of wide receivers Jayden Reed (on injured reserve following surgeries to repair a broken collarbone and a fracture in his foot) and Christian Watson (on the verge of being activated off the physically unable to perform list after last year’s torn ACL) have made it easier, in a weird way, for LaFleur to target that quartet more.

That said, LaFleur has given no indication that he’s interested in significantly altering the offense’s spread-the-wealth ethos.

“I mean, it is what it is, guys,” LaFleur said with a hint of defiance after being asked about Golden’s involvement after Sunday’s win. “I know everybody wants us to force-feed guys the ball, but that’s really not how we’ve done it around here and I don’t plan on changing that.

“That’s the beauty of having a lot of guys that we have a lot of confidence in, we have confidence that we can put anybody in the situation and try to have plays off of plays. A lot of it is dictated off the coverages, however teams are playing us. And the quarterback’s role is to make sure the ball’s going in the right place based on what the defense presents. And whoever gets those catches, they get them.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of mouths to feed, for sure. But I think one of the beauties of it is … that allows Jordan to play really disciplined as well, reading with his feet and let the coverage take you to where the ball needs to go and have the confidence that any one of those guys is going to make the play.”

For his part, Golden is saying all the right things, focusing on what he can control and working to further improve his connectivity with Love. His final catch against the Bengals was clear evidence of how far that synergy has come, with Love extending the play and Golden seemingly reading his mind to find an area where he could be in Love’s vision and make a play.

“We actually worked that the last practice we had. Things do go off schedule, and you’ve got to be ready,” Golden explained. “You’ve got to make a move fast, and Jordan had a big emphasis on that and we worked it in practice. For it to come live in the game, I feel like it all came out of us putting that work in. and it came alive today.

”I feel like we’re right where we need to be. I’m excited to play for a guy like that, just knowing he can put the ball anywhere. For me, all I’ve got to do is catch it.”

And what would it mean to him if he could catch it more often?

“I know I’m capable of anything. That’s just the mindset I’ve got,” Golden said. “There can never be too much on my plate. I got all that confidence in myself. But the more opportunities I get, I’m going to make the most of them and I’m going to go from there.

“I definitely would love to be that guy, but it’s just playing a role. Whenever your number is called, whatever opportunities you get, you’ve got to make the most of them and whatever situation I’m put in to make a play with the ball or even a block, I’m going to do my best and I’m going to try to make it.”

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