How Matthew Golden compares to past Packers WR prospects, including Davante Adams, and what it says about his ceiling

The Green Bay Packers have made a lot of investments in the wide receiver position over the past two decades. Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams, Christian Watson. All of them were taken in the second round. To a certain degree, it's unfair to say the Packers didn't care about the position.

However, this year was just different. For the first time since 2002, Green Bay used a first-round pick to select a player from the position, Matthew Golden. For the first time in franchise history, the Packers took two receivers in the first three rounds after also selecting Savion Williams.

But how does Golden stack against the other wide receivers the Packers took recently? Is he that much better of a prospect? Well, we have a fairly easy way of evaluating this, at least for the past 12 draft classes.

NFL.com archives start in the 2011 draft, but the current grading system started in 2014. So we're going from there to compare grades and tiers.

And yes, according to NFL.com grading system, Matthew Golden is the best wide receiver prospect the Packers have taken. He got a 6.42 grade, which equates to a player who will become a good starter within two years. The only other receiver in this category drafted by the Packers since 2014 is Davante Adams. A second-round pick in 2014, he took a little longer to develop into a great player, but eventually became an elite weapon. Adams had a 6.40 grade.

As always, there are scouting mistakes from all sides. The next category has Christian Watson, Amari Rodgers, and Equanimeous St. Brown. Two of them had poor NFL careers, and Watson is a good player but has suffered with injuries.

Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were lower in NFL.com's grading system and have had better NFL careersⲻkudos to the Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst for getting good value out of them.

Will become good starter within two years

• Matthew Golden 6.42
• Davante Adams 6.40

Will eventually be average starter

• Christian Watson 6.27
• Amari Rodgers 6.25
• Equanimeous St. Brown 6.20

Good backup with the potential to develop into starter

• Savion Williams 6.16
• J'Mon Moore 6.10
• Ty Montgomery 6.10

Average backup or special-teamer

• Jayden Reed 5.98
• Romeo Doubs 5.92
• Malachi Dupre 5.90
• Dontayvion Wicks 5.89
• Samori Toure 5.82
• Grant Dubose 5.81
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling 5.80
• Jared Abbrederis 5.80
• Jeff Janis 5.80

Undrafted

• DeAngelo Yancey 5.40
• Trevor Davis 5.40

Expectations

The Packers drafted Matthew Golden thinking he can be a real difference-maker fairly quickly. His strong hands were a big point of emphasis, especially after the WR room had so many drops and mistakes last season.

"He's one of those guys," Gutekunst said after drafting him. "Covering him from a man perspective is gonna be extremely tough. We get to some of those third downs when people are trying to mug us up, and you need someone to get open fast, he can do that. This goes back, and I can hear Ted (Thompson) in my head, you gotta catch it, and he had such good hands. For me, that was a big part of it too."

The Packers made an unusual investment in the wide receiver position, but that happened for a reason. They truly think Golden can be a major contributor for the future of the offense.