The narrative of “Who is Green Bay’s No. 1 Receiver?” is absolutely relentless. It smacks of fantasy football posturing mixed with a nostalgia for Aaron Rodgers-to-Davante Adams Fever.
Enough already.
By now, we should all understand that the Packers are now running the LaFleur offense, not the Rodgers/LaFleur hybrid system. It’s designed, per the coach’s own words, to allow quarterback Jordan Love to go through his reads and find the open man. Period.
In other words, if you’re a receiver in the system and you’re running a route, just do your job. Period. If you do, you’ll eventually be targeted. It keeps defenses guessing and, perhaps more importantly, it allows the offense to utilize the full complement of player skillsets at its disposal. The zero-in-on-Adams approach left with him.
In a 2022 interview with NFL Network, even LaFleur half-joked, “I think every play on our call sheet WAS designed to go to Davante Adams.”
In five games so far this season, the Packers have totaled 1,259 passing yards, without a clear No. 1 pass-catcher in sight.
Check out this workload split:
Tucker Kraft: 268 receiving yards on 18 receptions
Romeo Doubs: 18/234
Josh Jacobs: 15/176
Matthew Golden: 14/212
Dontayvion Wicks: 12/129
Luke Musgrave: 5/49
Kraft is the de facto “WR1,” and he’s not even a wide receiver, for Pete’s sake. He’s the run-after-the-catch, get-the-tough-yards pass-catcher that Love clearly trusts. He’s averaging just under 10 yards after the catch, first in the NFL, and when he’s targeted, the resulting passer rating is a ridiculous 158.3. That’s not even human. That’s like a Vince Lombardi team chasing perfection and not having to settle for mere greatness.
Doubs, meanwhile, who has garnered 28 targets, generates a 115.2 passer rating when Love is throwing his way. This is a trusted, veteran red zone weapon and one of Love’s most relied-upon targets in general. He’s a first down waiting to happen.
For Jacobs, his 15 catches have come on just 19 targets. While he’s utilized more as a runner, he’s bailed out the offense plenty in tough situations via the air. Fans can usually feel pretty good about seeing Love get the ball out to Jacobs on a checkdown. (I know I do.)
And then there’s Golden, the first-round pick everyone seemingly wants to anoint. And the truth is, he’s coming on. Like, quickly. Of his 212 receiving yards, 196 have come in the past three games.
Matthew Golden scored an elite 90.4 PFF grade in week 6. He also ranks 9th in the NFL in Catch Rate Over Expected. The Golden Era has begun in Green Bay pic.twitter.com/C2dS5hcVU5
— Packerfan Total Access- Clayton (@packers_access) October 13, 2025
Targeting him generates a 110 passer rating. He has garnered just 19 targets on 119 total routes run thus far, but the upward trend is there. The more he grows within the system, the more he will help his teammates be better. As Packers fans, we just have to let it evolve naturally within the construct of LaFleur’s offense.
Probably the best example of Golden’s evolution was the 31-yard strike on Sunday late in the game on third and 9. The young wideout saw Love scramble to his left, instinctively flattened his route and gave his quarterback a target. Love delivered a sparkling strike, and the game essentially was in the bag. It was a beautiful play and certainly a sign of what’s to come.
But it simply isn’t in the plan to force the issue. Golden is a highly-touted rookie, but he’s still a rookie. More importantly, it’s not the LaFleur way.
“You go into a game, and guys get excited if they think they have a legitimate shot at getting the ball. So, you have plays for each guy,” LaFleur told the media this week. “You want to get ’em all involved.”
He added, speaking of Golden, that, “It’s always about trying to spread it around, but he’s definitely a very explosive playmaker and just got to keep finding ways to get it to him.”
Yet among many fans, click-baiters and talking heads, there continue to be calls to funnel touches through rookie wideout Matthew Golden, a la vintage Adams. But that was done outside the construct of the offense – it was a connection and a trust Rodgers and Adams built over time that LaFleur and the offensive coaches clearly didn’t want to interrupt.
Golden has certainly looked the part of a No. 1 receiver when targeted. But as Packers.com editor Mike Spofford astutely observed, “... For all the fans who want him to get more action, whose touches get reduced? Tucker Kraft’s?Romeo Doubs'? (Josh) Jacobs'? … I think fans need to be less fixated on making someone a star and just let him become one.”
And if we think it’s a crowded pass-catching corps now, just wait until Christian Watson and Jayden Reed return – someone’s going to have to go to bed without seconds every week. So, if Golden is destined to ever become that ever-elusive “No. 1 Wide Receiver” in this offense, it will likely be later rather than sooner in the grand scheme of things. And it will happen organically.