Matthew Golden is pretty much always open and usually he can do something about it.
That's about as positive a spin as I can put on the Packers' second-year wide receiver's ongoing problems with drops. On the one hand, you have to be open a lot to have as many opportunities to drop passes as Golden has. On the other hand…man, that's a lot of dropped passes.
Most, if not all, of the writers in the APC stable were still pretty high on Golden even after his disappointing rookie year, and I think we all figured he'd have something of a redemption tour this year. But this is about as strange a second year as you could imagine. Golden has been legitimately great at times, but his struggles with doing the most basic thing you can ask of a receiver would be funny if they weren't so frustrating. You gotta catch the ball! That's like 95% of the job, maybe more!
And it's resulting in some unintentional comedy in the box score. Golden currently has 16 more targets than Christian Watson, but only one more catch. He's 33 targets ahead of Tucker Kraft, but only eight catches ahead.
Again, he's clearly getting open, it's just he's not doing as much with the opportunity as you'd like.
The good news is we've seen plenty of wide receivers figure out their drops. Davante Adams is everybody's favorite example, but Christian Watson might be a better one, or at least a more contemporary one. He, too, had some early career bouts of the drops, but he's mostly put that behind him. Well, mostly. He, too, has had some issues with drops this season.
At least it keeps things interesting. How boring would things be if your receivers simply always caught the ball?
Packers WR Matthew Golden's NFL-Leading Totals Are Great, Horrible | Sports Illustrated
Counting drops is a pretty inexact science, but pretty much any stat service you look at has Golden looking pretty bad. Fortunately, he's catching a lot of other passes.
Micah Parsons update: Packers intend to start practicing him this week | Packers News
As expected, Micah Parsons will start practicing this week.
Packers trade deadline primer: Where does Green Bay need help? | Packers News
A week out from the trade deadline, here's where the Packers could use some help.
2026 NFL trade deadline QB rankings: Mac Jones, Kirk Cousins lead 10 best targets | CBS Sports
I get the sense this could be an especially active trade deadline, but anything can happen.
A tracer through traffic — Call of the Game | Packers.com
Jordan Love's early game strike to Tucker Kraft earned a great call from Wayne Larrivee.
Pennsylvania man goes to the movies 1,207 times in one year | UPI
I love a trip to the theater as much as the next guy, but I don't know if there's enough popcorn and Milk Duds in the world to make me want to do this.
Hey look! Someone else can miss a short field goal, too! It's not just our guys!
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