Through five games, Christian Watson and Matthew Golden have been the engines of the Packers’ passing attack. Together, they’ve caught 50 passes for 871 yards and eight touchdowns, averaging 17.42 yards per catch as a duo.
They’re truly a dynamic duo, and they’re producing in a way we haven’t seen in more than a decade.
Watson and Golden are putting up such big numbers in the passing game because they’re getting the lion’s share of the targets. Golden leads the Packers with 44 targets so far this season,
while Watson isn’t far behind with 40. Tucker Kraft, incidentally, is third with 29.
Golden and Watson have accounted for 24.3% and 22.1% of the Packers’ targets, respectively, so far, the first time since 2014 that two Packers players have received more than 20% of the team’s targeted throws in a given season.
That year, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb hauled in 28.4% and 23.9% of the Packers’ targeted passes en route to dual 1000-yard seasons. But that’s the last time it happened, and a pair of Packers’ receivers has only come close one other time.
You’d probably guess that Davante Adams regularly received over 20% of the Packers’ receiving targets, and you’d be right. During the “all Davante, all the time” period of the Packers’ passing offense, Adams surpassed the 20% threshold in five consecutive seasons (2017-21), but only once did he have a comparably productive running mate. In 2016, fresh off a torn ACL, Jordy Nelson posted a 19.7% target share, falling short of 20% by literally two targets.
It does paint the Packers’ passing attack as a bit top heavy, but what else would you do? Watson and Golden are almost literally always open. You might as well keep putting it up there for them.
One may fade as Tucker Kraft continues to get his feet under him post-ACL, but until then, Golden and Watson will continue to get targets at a rate that we haven’t seen in quite some time.
