After coming in as a much-ballyhooed first-round pick, Matthew Golden hasn\u2019t exactly set the world on fire. After 2 catches for 16 yards in Week 1, his stat line looked even less full in Week 2: 2 carries for 15 yards and 0 catches on 2 targets.<\/p>\n
But stats and film are two different things, so I wanted to take a look at what Golden did in Week 2 against the Commanders, and I\u2019m going to make it your problem.<\/p>\n
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First things first: let\u2019s just talk about the two carries he got. The speed and shiftiness is certainly on display, and the Packers are clearly looking for ways to get the ball in his hands, which is a good sign.<\/p>\n
Beyond what they\u2019ve given him as part of the running game, they\u2019re also asking him to hold his own as a blocker in the run game. At 5\u201911\u201d, 191 lbs, he\u2019s not going to be a lockdown blocker, but I\u2019ve been impressed with his willingness and effectiveness. When looking at a WR as a blocker (particularly a rookie WR), I\u2019m looking for two main things: does he give effort, and does he know his assignment? Through two games, I can say that the answer is \u201cyes\u201d to both of those for Golden.<\/p>\n
Now, to the passing game, starting with the targets. He\u2019s not doing anything spectacular on the first route, but it\u2019s effective. He\u2019s the outside man in a 2\u00d72 formation against man coverage. He starts his route vertically to the outside before bending back in. It\u2019s not much, but that initial outside push is enough to get his defender to open up to the outside, forcing him to flip back inside when Golden bends back in. Nice, subtle route to get the initial separation and the speed to keep that separation down the field.<\/p>\n
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Unfortunately, Jordan Love slightly underthrows the ball, leading to a pass breakup.<\/p>\n
The next target sees Golden outside in a 2\u00d72 once again. The Commanders have two men to his side, but Golden simply runs right through them. Love sets, loads & fires, and slightly overthrows Golden this time.<\/p>\n
Split the difference on those throws, and we\u2019re probably sitting here talking about a two-touchdown game from Golden. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not how football works, so he\u2019s 0\/2.<\/p>\n
As for the times he wasn\u2019t targeted in the passing game? Pretty good!<\/p>\n
One thing that was tough to tell from Golden\u2019s college tape \u2013 from most WR college tape, really \u2013 was his release off the line. There are very few examples of press coverage in college, so it\u2019s tough to know how effective a WR will be once he faces that in the NFL. The early returns are showing that Golden has a good enough release package off the line to get him free releases.<\/p>\n
His footwork allows him to maneuver his defender out of position, then use his speed to stack his defender down the field to create separation and give his QB a good target.<\/p>\n
His speed down the field allows him to push defenders back, giving him a cushion to work back to.<\/p>\n
His suddenness at the top of the route can put defenders in extremely poor positions.<\/p>\n
And, finally, his effort & willingness as a run blocker allow the coaching staff to give him creative outlets as a receiver. In the shadow of their own goalposts, Golden motions in as an insert blocker \u2013 a role they\u2019ve used him for in the run game \u2013 then releases him vertically through the line.<\/p>\n
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Golden is able to slide right by the defender, looking to take him on through the line, finding some free grass. But the field position of the Packers \u2013 combined with the pressure through the line \u2013 sees Love deciding to take the easier throw to Tucker Kraft in the flat. That\u2019s absolutely the right call in this situation, but they\u2019ve also seen Golden wide open on this and have filed that away.<\/p>\n
As I said at the top, the stat line isn\u2019t going to blow anyone away. That being said, Golden put a lot of encouraging things on tape against the Commanders. Aside from the two near-misses on his targets, he was consistently open in the passing game and a willing blocker in the run game. When he was asked to simply be a vertical clear-out receiver in the passing game, he pushed hard to clear out, exactly like he\u2019s supposed to do.<\/p>\n
Aside from all those things, he was on the field for 59% of the Packers\u2019 offensive snaps, second only to Romeo Roubs (74%) for wide receiver snaps.<\/p>\n
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We\u2019re only two weeks in, but it feels like Golden is right on the doorstep of having a huge game. He\u2019s doing all the right things, and the Packers seem to trust him. I\u2019ve been extremely encouraged watching him, and I\u2019ve loved what he has brought to this offense. If he keeps doing that, it\u2019s only a matter of time before the stat line catches up with him.<\/p>\n
Albums listened to: John Carpenter \u2013 Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Chevelle \u2013 Bright as Blasphemy; Lucy Dacus \u2013 Forever is a Feeling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After coming in as a much-ballyhooed first-round pick, Matthew Golden hasn\u2019t exactly set the world on fire. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,1724,701,6,428,14233],"class_list":{"0":"post-372432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-jordan-love","14":"tag-matthew-golden","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers","17":"tag-tucker-kraft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115213562521296323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}