Matthew Golden fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

Golden only played about 50% of the Packers snaps as a rookie despite going 23rd overall in the NFL Draft. The Packers had 5 WRs in a rotation, plus play a balanced style, so targets were difficult to come by. In fact, Golden only cleared 5 targets once. Per route, Golden was just fine. He had a 1.44 yards per route and 15.5% targets per route. He played in some 2-WR sets, but most of his looks game in 3-WR sets with quality players around him. The quality is still there with Christian Watson and slot Jayden Reed both paid, but his path to near full-time snaps is way more obvious now that Romeo Doubs (free agent) and Dontayvion Wicks (trade) are out the way. So, is he good? On tape, Golden is better than given credit for if only looking at spreadsheets. He moved around the formation and was given some screens and some motion reps to get his top speed going early in the route. His speed is pretty obvious on these go and post routes, and that's where his bread will be buttered until proven otherwise. Jordan Love targets these routes often, and the duo just missed hundreds of more yards on these last year simply due to small sample noise. I expect more downfield shots to be completed in 2026. Golden was able to come down with a few spicy contested catch grabs for someone of his size 5'11"/191. This was true in college, too. He also added more explosives in the scramble drill, which is important when playing with Love. Golden had a fun screen TD and collected a few ankles on intermediate routes, but for the most part, Golden wasn't used underneath. He didn't have many zone s...