After his most productive practice of training camp so far, Green Bay Packers rookie receiver Matthew Golden said he can feel the game starting to slow down as his comfort level in the offense rises.
It’s early in the process for the Packers’ first-round pick, but the results — including a big-time contested catch against a starting corner and a long touchdown catch during an 11-on-11 period on Tuesday — are hard to ignore.
“It’s starting to slow down for me,” Golden said after Tuesday’s practice, via Wes Hodkiewicz of Packers.com. “It’s starting to feel like I can go out there and just play and have fun, not have to think about what I need to do. It’s just going out there getting open, knowing my assignment and alignment.”
As the thinking is slowing down, the big plays have sped up in frequency.
On one play on Tuesday, Golden came free on a bootleg play and made a catch along the sideline. Later, during 1-on-1s against Carrington Valentine, Golden adjusted to an underthrown deep ball and beat Valentine to the ball, completing a tough contested catch for another big play.
The highlight play came during 11-on-11. Golden ran a double move, improving on a route he failed during an earlier training camp practice, and got behind the coverage of Nate Hobbs and Evan Williams for a long touchdown catch from Jordan Love. The big play was the result of a young player improving in real time and a quarterback already starting to trust a rookie pass-catcher.
Love said Golden has the type of “aggressiveness” in his hands that could separate him as a ball-winner at receiver for the Packers.
But the biggest hurdle for any young player is usually on the mental side, and playing fast is tough when a rookie is thinking and not just reacting. It takes time before a player’s assignments on every play are engrained, especially for a receiver in Matt LaFleur’s diverse scheme, but Golden appears to be on the right track.
If this kind of production is happening a week into training camp while learning on the fly, what could Matthew Golden be capable of when it all comes together?
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers rookie Matthew Golden: ‘It’s starting to slow down for me’