Packers select wide receiver Matthew Golden with No. 23 pick in NFL draft

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Matthew Golden was well aware that the Green Bay Packers hadn’t selected a wide receiver in the first round of the NFL draft since 2002.

But that didn’t shake Golden’s confidence that his name would be called by the Packers.The host team for this year’s draft selected the Texas star wide receiver at No. 23 overall on Thursday night.

“I definitely knew they didn’t take a receiver from that long ago,” Golden told reporters. “And I had a good relationship with ’em when I came up here on my visit. I got around the coaching staff and I seen how the culture was here and I enjoyed it.

”The previous time the Packers used their first-round pick to select a wide receiver was Javon Walker at 20th overall 23 years ago. In fact, this is just the sixth time in the past 20 years the Packers have used a first-round pick on an offensive player, which includes quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers (2005) and Jordan Love (2020).