The Packers didn't draft a receiver in the first round for 23 years, then finally pulled the trigger on Matthew Golden at No. 23 overall in 2025. He put together a quiet rookie year, but the writing was already on the wall for what Green Bay wanted him to become.
Jordan Love, via the team's own reporting, confirms Golden is sliding into Doubs' old spot and will line up mostly at X.
That's a real vacancy to fill. Doubs left in free agency for the Patriots, and with him goes a chunk of the target share that used to flow through Green Bay's receiver room. Now it's Love, on the record, naming Golden as the guy replacing him at the position — not a hype piece from a beat writer, but the quarterback himself pointing at his new X receiver.
Golden's rookie tape gives you a reason to buy in even if the box score doesn't. He finished 2025 with 29 catches for 361 yards and no regular-season touchdowns, forgettable on paper. But in the Wild Card round against the Bears, he broke out with 4 catches for 84 yards and a score — the first real glimpse of the speed that had him running a 4.29-second 40 at the combine, the fastest of any receiver there.
The Packers didn't stop at handing Golden more targets, either. They locked up Christian Watson on a 4-year extension worth up to $110.5 million this offseason, pairing him with Golden as the projected starting boundary receivers, with Dontayvion Wicks or another slot piece rounding out the room. That's a lot invested in a receiving corps that's shedding a familiar name in Doubs and betting on youth and speed instead.
For fantasy purposes, this is the kind of role change you circle. X receiver in an NFL offense usually means more downfield targets and a bigger piece of the pie in the passing game — exactly what Doubs used to soak up in Green Bay. If Love trusts Golden the way this report suggests, his Year 2 breakout isn't just plausible, it's the plan.
The real test comes once the pads go on and the season starts. A 21-year-old with elite speed stepping into a starting X role is a tantalizing profile, but rookie-year role players don't always translate cleanly into Year 2 volume. Green Bay's clearly banking on it, and so is Love.