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Packers end 1st-round WR drought, pick Golden

  • Rob DemovskyApr 24, 2025, 11:01 PM ET

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      Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — It’s hard to say which was more stunning: the surreal sight of the NFL draft in the league’s smallest city or the fact that the host Green Bay Packers broke a two-decade-plus streak of skipping receivers in the first round.

Much to the delight of the Packers-heavy crowd jammed between Lambeau Field and the draft stage, the home team selected wide receiver Matthew Golden of Texas with the 23rd pick in the draft Thursday night. It was the first time since 2002 (with Javon Walker) that Green Bay used a first-round pick on a receiver.

As soon as team president Mark Murphy, who announced the pick, began by saying “for the first time since 2002 …” there was bedlam in the crowd.

Golden even took to the stage and shouted: “Green Bay, it’s time.”

“It’s always been a dream of mine to go in the first round, and to know that they haven’t picked a receiver since 2002, man, it’s truly a blessing,” Matthew Golden said of being selected by the Packers. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

“I really sent in a different name, but Mark just announced what he announced,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst joked afterward.

“I didn’t think about any of that until he got up there and you kind of saw the crowd; they’re all Green Bay fans. You heard the chants and all that stuff, it was really cool, but I’ll just be honest with you, I didn’t think anything like that. We were just watching the board, we had a couple players we were discussing, there were trade opportunities, things like that, so you’re going through all of that and just trying to do what’s right for the Packers. None of that really came before me like that, but afterwards it did. It was just kind of like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty neat.'”

For years, fans have pined for the Packers to take a receiver in the first round, but it’s not as if the team ignored receivers early in the draft. Gutekunst has twice used second-round picks on the position (Editor’s Picks

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“I will say this: In no time in my 20-some years within this organization, whether it was Ron or Ted, did I hear them talk about that as a philosophy,” Gutekunst said earlier this offseason when asked if the Packers intentionally avoid receivers in the first round. “I know Ron talked a lot about being mad he didn’t take Randy Moss, you know what I mean?

“No one’s ever really talked about [it]. I never really looked at it that way. I don’t think we’d ever hesitate to take a receiver in the first round if the right one was there. We certainly talked about it at different times in the last seven years since I’ve been in this spot, trying to make that happen. So, I don’t really look at it as a philosophical thing. I will say we’ve hit on a lot of second-round receivers. There’s been a lot of guys that we’ve taken in that group that have become really, really good players for us. Not only us but throughout the league.”

The Packers had a need at the position after losing Watson, their deep-threat receiver, to a torn ACL late in the season. Golden gives quarterback Jordan Love something Aaron Rodgers never had: a first-round pick drafted to Green Bay.

Golden was the third receiver taken in the draft, after the Carolina Panthers took Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan at No. 8 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka at No. 19. Gutekunst said that he entertained trade offers, but that Golden was too good to pass up. Golden ran the fastest 40 time (4.29) of any receiver at the combine, which was also second fastest of anyone there regardless of position.

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Though Golden is barely above the Packers’ desired height of 5-foot-11 for an outside receiver, his speed and production at Houston and Texas proved that his height was not an issue. In three college seasons, Golden caught 134 passes for 1,975 yards and 22 touchdowns. In his lone season at Texas in 2024, he had 58 catches for 987 yards and nine touchdowns.

Golden said he was fully aware of just how long it had been since the Packers had taken a receiver in the first round.

“Yeah, it definitely means a lot more,” Golden said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to go in the first round, and to know that they haven’t picked a receiver since 2002, man, it’s truly a blessing.”

Even before commissioner Roger Goodell took the stage to announce the start of the draft at 7 p.m. local time, the stage area had reached maximum capacity and entry was temporarily paused. The league said 205,000 people were in attendance, nearly double Green Bay’s population (107,544).

“What a great, cool moment for Green Bay [and] the Packers,” Gutekunst said. “It’s really a cool scene out there and was really fun watching it from the draft room.”