GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It’s time to insert Christian Watson into the conversation of best receivers in the NFL. And while you’re at it, throw Matthew Golden into talk about the most improved player in the NFL.
Together, they have a chance to be the Green Bay Packers’ most productive receiver combination since the days of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb more than a decade ago.
As dominant as Davante Adams was when he led the Packers in receiving every season from 2017 to 2021, he never had a consistent running mate.
In Sunday’s much-needed 31-7 win over the Chicago Bears, Watson and Golden showed why the Packers wanted to streamline their receiver room and give quarterback Jordan Love a few go-to guys rather than a smorgasbord of receivers, none of whom ranked among the league’s best. Jayden Reed was supposed to be part of the go-to group, but the Packers lost him for the season to a neck injury in Week 2.
Against the Bears, Watson (six catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns) and Golden (six catches for 123 yards) became the first pair of Packers to each record 100 yards receiving in the same game since Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling did in 2021 against the Minnesota Vikings.
“We talked about it a little bit last week, how good the offense can be. It just shows right there,” Love said. “Those are two guys that are dominant factors. We get flowing like this and they’re making plays and we’re able to take advantage of what the defense is doing. Both those guys, they’re capable of doing great things. I think that’s just a little bit of, show what’s possible.”
What’s possible is this: Watson is on pace for 1,600 yards and Golden for nearly 1,350. The Packers haven’t had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in the same season since Nelson and Cobb in 2014.
“Well, we’ll see,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “You’re only as good as your last game. They were pretty good this week.”
Or as Packers safety Xavier McKinney said when asked how tough it would be for defenses to cover Watson and Golden if they play like that: “It’s different.”
McKinney should know. He has had to do it in practice all year.
“You see the speed,” McKinney said. “I’m sure the DBs on the other side, they feel that speed. And when you’ve got a quarterback like [Love], I’ve seen it now for a couple years, so I know what he’s capable of doing. I’ve seen the throws that he’s made. I know the throws that he can make consistently.
“Then obviously you get talented guys like C-Wat, M.G., [tight end] Tuck Kraft ... once they start to get really clicking and really going, it’s going to be a scary sight to see for any team.”
Watson, who had parts of the past two seasons impacted by injuries, ranks fifth in the league in receiving yards with 474 and second in touchdowns with six (behind Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s seven). Golden, with 24 catches for 397 yards, has already surpassed his yardage total from last season, when he was a first-round rookie, and is five catches behind his total.
The numbers tell only part of the story. The film shows the other. How many receivers in the league can haul in the 53-yard touchdown that Watson did in the third quarter against the Bears? He reached over Bears safety Dillon Thieneman, who was giving chase, and then made sure the catch survived the ground after Thieneman knocked him down and sent him sliding toward the back of the end zone.
“Honestly, I was kind of joking around with some of the guys after, that’s just one of those ones that you watch it back on tape, and you’re like, ‘The DB should’ve broken it up or it should’ve been incomplete,’” Watson said. “Sometimes, you just find a way. I was just tracking the ball. I wasn’t thinking too much. Just go get it and came down with it.”
Golden did much the same. On his 36-yard catch in the third quarter and his 50-yarder in the fourth, Golden had to go up in the air and twist his body to make the grabs.
“It’s hard to stop two guys who can run all the routes and stretch the field like that,” Watson said of him and Golden. “If you try to, it’s going to give us other opportunities elsewhere. Obviously we’ve got Tucker Kraft and we’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays. It’s just tough when you’ve got playmakers of the ability we have in our room and our offense, to stop it all.”
The Packers can’t expect to throw it deep with as much success as they did against the Bears. There’s a reason Love had more completions on passes with 20-plus air yards (six) on Sunday than he did in the first four games combined (five): They’re typically low-percentage throws that teams cannot count on week in and week out.
“You can’t, but it’s OK,” McKinney said. “We’ll get [running back Josh Jacobs] back soon, and we’ll be OK. I think that even the backs now, the guys that are playing, have done a great job of making sure they’re running hard and getting the extra yards, whatever the case may be, so it can open up the pass game. But when we get [Jacobs] back, yeah, it’s gonna really show.”