Going into the third preseason game, we had only seen 1st round WR Matthew Golden on 13 snaps, all in the first preseason game. We got to see him for 16 snaps in the final preseason game, so I wanted to dig in and take a look.
We’ll start with the bad, because I like to get the negatives out of the way first. In this case, there aren’t many of them. For starters, there was a drop. Yes, the ball was high when it didn’t need to be, but he was still able to get a hand on it. It’s nit-picky, but there aren’t a ton
of nits to pick so I need to at least bring it up.
The Packers asked Golden to block in the run game quite a bit. And, while he’s certainly a willing blocker, there are still moments where he doesn’t seem super confident in what he’s supposed to do. That reared its head once this past weekend. He takes a couple steps upfield when it looks like he needs to just angle in and block. As a result, the defender slips right by him.
If we want to continue to pick at nits, we’ll turn our attention to Golden’s lone catch of the day: a nice adjustment on a deep ball for a 39 yard gain. The catch is spectacular, but gives up too much ground on the route, drifting to the sideline without a cornerback forcing him over to it. If you want to be charitable, you can point out that the whole play feels like a scramble drill, with Malik Willis trying to catch the Seahawks with too many men on the field (must be that 12th man I’ve heard so much about). He doesn’t seem to expect the ball, so he just keeps drifting to the sideline.
When Willis works over, there’s very little room to fit the ball on the sideline. Willis throws the ball back into the field, and Golden comes up with a great catch.
You love to see the adjustment and the body control to bring this in, but you’d like to see Golden not drift to the sideline like that.
Now for some things that I liked. Back in my Week 1 Emptying the Notebook post, I talked about the Packers using Golden as an insert blocker. It’s something I didn’t expect to see much from him this season – that’s something that has traditionally been handled by Watson or Wicks – but we’ve seen it a few times from Golden this preseason. I don’t know how much they plan on putting him in that position during the season, but, if it’s something they think he can handle, it will go a long way to making sure he is able to get on the field as much as possible. Golden working as an insert blocker would be a nice way of getting him on the field in 12 personnel packages (2 TE sets) and could potentially open the door to get Jayden Reed on the field a bit more in those looks.
He hasn’t been a lockdown blocker in those situations, but he’s willing to stick his nose into the line as a blocker and he’s not getting bullied. That’s a good start.
It hasn’t just been the insert blocking that has stood out. When asked to be a blocker in the run game, Golden has done a nice job (the exception being the clip I posted a little earlier). I don’t ask much from wide receivers in the blocking game on the perimeter: know where you’re supposed to be and get in decent position. There doesn’t need to be any big movement: just get in the way and lose slowly. So far, Golden has shown to be a willing blocker who knows how to get in the way and doesn’t shy away from contact.
We didn’t really see him run many routes, so it’s tough to glean too much from that. We saw the big catch off a vertical route earlier. He had one other vertical route, which was basically a clear-out route on 4th down. He gets bodied a bit down the field, but maintains his feet and creates late separation.
We’ll close things out with this nifty route from a stack. He sets up the defender for an outside release before breaking back inside and throwing on the brakes for a curl.
This is the kind of thing I think we’ll see a lot of from Golden this season. There’s a smoothness and suddenness to his movements. Really looking forward to seeing what he does once the games start to count.
Albums listened to: Superchunk – Songs in the Key of Yikes; The Aces – Gold Star Baby; Wolf Alice – The Clearing
