Jan. 16, 2026, 9:04 a.m. CT
The Green Bay Packers experienced another crushing playoff loss to end their 2025 season, but Matthew Golden was a huge bright spot in their final game of the year, and fellow rookie Anthony Belton has also become a full-time starter for Green Bay in the back half of the season.
Here’s how the pair performed in the Packers’ last two games of the 2025 campaign:
WR Matthew Golden
The presence of Clayton Tune at quarterback made it very difficult to evaluate much of what was going on with the receivers in Green Bay’s regular season finale against Minnesota, although it was disappointing Golden had two drops on simple stop routes in that game.
His only catch came after he motioned left to right pre snap, showing off his speed to easily clear the linebacker and catch a pass in the flat, turning it up field and picking up a first down.
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Golden’s performance against the Bears was arguably his best of the season, competing with the Bengals game from back in Week 6, as he put up 84 yards on four catches, including his first touchdown as a pro.
For his first catch, it was difficult to tell whether he made an adjustment on his route or was following the original design.
He was running a deep crosser, but as Jordan Love escaped the pocket, broke it off towards the sideline and made a challenging catch look easy, stretching his hands out to bring the ball in and rolling down the sideline for extra yards.
The Packers like to run crossers that turn into corner routes, so it may have been planned, but if not, it was a heads up play by Golden to help out his quarterback and turn it into a big play.
Golden’s touchdown was nothing short of incredible, as he motioned out of the backfield, caught a pass in the flat and evaded a horde of Bears on his way to the end zone, showing the ability to break tackles, vision, and pure determination to get in the end zone.
Green Bay has persisted with giving him YAC opportunities this season. The returns have been modest at best, until Saturday night. The 23-yard score was easily Golden’s best play with the ball in his hands all year.
The rookie came through late in the game, as he has done in other games this season, running a super sharp out route on the penultimate drive to pick up a first down, creating easy separation.
He also kept the ill-fated final drive alive, motioning right to left and getting open easily again on another out route for a fourth down conversion against Kyler Gordon.
There were some missed opportunities for Golden to potentially find the end zone two more times in this game.
He absolutely torched a defensive back on and out and up on Green Bay’s last drive before halftime, but Love turned his attention to the other side of the field a tick early and eventually threw incomplete to Christian Watson.
On the penultimate drive of the game, he won easily on a go route with no safety help over the top, but Love threw to Doubs running a vertical route on the other side. Hopefully these are plays Love will see on tape and start to look Golden’s way more in 2026.
The numbers are nothing to shout about, but on tape, Golden displayed exactly why he was a first-round pick all year when given the opportunities, running crisp routes and showing really strong hands. With Doubs set to hit free agency, Golden should take on a bigger role next season.
RG Anthony Belton
Encouragingly, the list of positive plays is outweighing the negatives for Belton after he got more settled in at right guard down the stretch.
A staple of Belton’s game has become his ability to block well on the move on outside run plays. He generally does a good job of keeping himself between the defender and the ball, using his combination of strength and movement skills to stay engaged with opponents as they try to run away from him towards the ball.
There are some blocks in the last couple of games where he has been able to showcase his power, turning defenders out of run plays or taking linebackers to the dirt when he gets hands on them.
There was a nice block against the Vikings where Belton latches on, keeps his feet running and moves them way back off the line of scrimmage. He is also able to use his core strength to stay engaged with opponents even if his upper body is at an awkward angle.
His relative burst for a player of his size has allowed him to get up to the second level quickly and hit targets at times, or go pick up linebackers firing downhill off the snap towards the running back.
Belton’s issues in the run game are often due to simply whiffing on blocks, and that was still happening in the final games of the season.
Against the Vikings he just waved an arm and lunged at an opponent, missing completely and allowing them to go make a tackle. A similar thing happened when he missed his block on a Josh Jacobs run versus the Bears.
His nastiness and power still needs to show up more. He is quite good at covering guys up in the run game, but is not really moving them out of the way often enough, giving defenders a chance to make a play on the ball if it comes near them.
Belton’s feet are looking smooth in pass pro, as he is able to fire quickly out of his stance and redirect if defenders want to dance with him.
There have been less moments where he flat out misses with his punch in recent games, and this has given him a better platform to get into the rep and eventually survive it, which he mostly does once he gets hands on a defender, using his power and torque to dig in and slow their momentum.
He executed a nice snatch block against Minnesota, and is also getting better at picking up stunts as he gains more experience. Belton continues to lay big hits on defenders working against his fellow linemen if he has no one to block.
The mistakes he makes are more often when there are multiple people to block right at the snap of the ball. There are plays where he thinks he does not have an assignment, so goes to help his right tackle immediately, but doesn’t notice a free runner coming right through.
Belton is still put on his heels too much in pass pro as he allows opponents to get into his chest and walk him back. He is often right on Love’s toes by the time he throws the ball.
He is likely to be Green Bay’s starting right guard next season, and has shown as a rookie he is capable of holding up, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, in his ability to finish and especially with his hand usage, if he is to avoid being taken advantage of by the league’s best.