Matthew Golden — Week 1: Twelve Targets, Most on the Team
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Golden led the Packers with twelve targets, caught six for ninety-five yards, and had the forty-two-yard catch on second and twenty that opened the fourth quarter with Green Bay up 22–17. Nine of the twelve targets came after halftime, and all four of his third-down targets went unconverted, in a 39–22 loss to the Vikings.
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Matthew Golden's biggest play Sunday was the first snap of the fourth quarter. Second and 20 at the Green Bay 32, 15 minutes left, Packers up 22 to 17: Jordan Love deep middle to Golden, 42 yards to the Minnesota 26. +3.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and +10.9 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it, the second-largest gain on any Packers play all day behind the 81-yard touchdown to Christian Watson. Three plays later the drive was over: a four-yard MarShawn Lloyd run, an incompletion to Tucker Kraft, an incompletion short middle to Golden on third and six, and Love stopped for no gain on fourth and one at the 17.
The line: 12 targets, six catches, 95 yards, no touchdowns, four first downs, +0.8 expected points on the targets. Three targets before halftime for one catch and five yards; nine after for five catches and 90. The other catches, two before the 42 two after: 13 yards short right on first and 10 from the Green Bay 13 with 10 55 left in the third, seven yards short right at one 24 of the third, then 20 yards deep right on second and 15 at three oh nine of the fourth, and eight yards short right to the Minnesota 12 at one 55. The four third-down targets were all misses: third and 12 at the Minnesota 41 in the first quarter, incomplete deep right; third and eight at the Green Bay 46 in the second, caught for five, three short; the third and six at the Minnesota 22 that preceded the fourth-and-one; and third and two at the Minnesota 12 with one 35 left, incomplete short middle, one play before the fourth-down incompletion that ended the possession.
12 targets led the team — eight to Watson, seven to Jayden Reed, six to Kraft, three to Jonnu Smith — and the 95 yards were second to Watson's hundred 47. Love threw 42 times, so Golden's 12 were 29 percent of the throws, and nine of them came in the 27 pass plays after halftime.
Back in June the preview called Golden a watchlist: the fiftieth receiver at pick one 21, a locked-in starting job by June after a rookie year of three targets a game and no touchdowns, priced for a leap the base rates could not see, with September targets as the test — six a game would mean the job is what the price says, three would mean the org chart was only ever an org chart. Sunday was 12. It was also six catches, no touchdowns and none of four third downs converted, which is the other half of a 12-target day. One game does not make a leap, and 12 is the number the preview said to look for. Green Bay is at the Jets on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Matthew Golden's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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