- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 425,596
- Reaction score
- 43
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has been asked numerous times this offseason about what he plans to do to add speed to the team’s wide receiving corps.
While he has acknowledged that speed is certainly nice to have, he has repeatedly stopped short of agreeing with reporters and fans that the Josh Allen-offense needs a track star to become a fully functioning unit.
“I would say our offense did pretty good last year,” Beane said at last month’s owners’ meetings, repeating what he said in late February at the scouting combine. “I think when you look across the board, scoring, all that stuff, I think what Joe Brady and Josh and our offensive team did was pretty good. We like the addition of Josh Palmer to our group. We feel like he's a guy who really fits what we like to do, kind of another 'positionless' wide receiver. Am I sitting here going, ‘Man, we've got a hole there?’ No.”
It’s hard to argue with him. The Bills set a franchise record by scoring 525 points, and they didn’t even need the 17th game to top the previous mark of 501 set by the 2020 team in a 16-game season. They proceeded to add 87 more points in three playoff games, Allen was named NFL MVP, and there was no one in the receiving corps that anyone would consider a true speed merchant.
As the Bills get ready for next week’s draft, they have a receiving corps with a solid top four of Palmer, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Curtis Samuel. Their top two priorities in the first round should be either defensive tackle or cornerback, but if the board falls a certain way, it wouldn’t be crazy if Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden was gettable.
Given his 2024 performance, plus the way his draft process has gone - he ran a 4.29 in the 40, the fast time among all receivers at the combine - there’s probably zero chance he makes it to Buffalo’s scheduled pick at No. 30. His stock has soared from originally being considered a late second or early third-round pick to now averaging pick No. 20 in the first round according to NFL Mock Draft Database which gathers information from dozens of mock drafts.
The Cowboys at No. 12, Chargers at No. 22 and Rams at No. 26 seem like his most obvious landing spots, so if the Bills covet him - they did meet with him at the combine - then they’ll probably need to trade up to get him. With their more obvious needs on defense, they may not have the appetite to do that, but if he were sitting there when they go on the clock, well, then they’d have an intriguing decision to make.
Of his meeting with the Bills’ brass at the combine, he said, “It was good, just going over the concepts and the type of way they run the offense. Obviously, playing with Josh Allen, he's a mobile quarterback, he likes to get out of the pocket so being able to make plays and extend plays for him, it'd be cool.”
Golden began his college career at Houston and caught 76 passes for 988 yards and 13 TDs across two years before transferring to Texas in 2024 where he outplayed fellow transfer Isaiah Bond and became the No. 1 wide receiver for a team that reached the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
The 6-foot, 195-pounder caught 58 passes for 987 yards and nine TDs and he did big damage on ‘post’ and ‘go’ routes, a combined seven catches for 298 yards on those according to Pro Football Focus, exactly the routes the Bills need to get from someone which would open up so many other opportunities in the intermediate range for the other receivers plus tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox.
“The one-on-one routes to the boundary, I can get open to the boundary,” he said. “I can change my tempo, my speeds and be able to snap down and come back to the quarterback. I can stretch the field vertically. I also like to be in the run game. I take a lot of pride in blocking.”
Golden would look great in a Buffalo uniform, but the odds are against it happening because of his rise up draft boards, and the Bills knowing they could probably use one of their two second-round picks on a receiver.
“We’re always gonna look, you know that,” coach Sean McDermott said of adding a receiver in the draft. “I feel good about the guys that we have. I feel good about what we’ve done offensively. We’ve kept a heck of a lot of continuity offensively.”
➤ Joe DeLeone of Pro Football Network said, “Golden is the most well-rounded receiver prospect. He combines fantastic athleticism with the ability to do all of the little things at a high enough level to carve out a role within an offense. Golden likely will never emerge as a primary target in the NFL, but he’s balanced enough to be a fantastic WR2 or WR3 on a team. His ability to create consistent separation with his speed or quick feet makes him a reliable target. He also made a number of highlight-worthy catches in his final few games of the season.”
➤ Mel Kiper of ESPN said, “One year with (Quinn) Ewers at Texas, Matthew Golden became the guy. Isaiah Bond, remember, he was the hyped transfer. Matthew Golden was not the hyped transfer but this was the guy Quinn Ewers went to early and often in those games. He had a drop every now and then but overall, he was the man. To put together the type of year he had solidifies him, in my opinion, as a borderline first-round pick.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills draft needs include WR: Matthew Golden may be nice fit
Continue reading...
While he has acknowledged that speed is certainly nice to have, he has repeatedly stopped short of agreeing with reporters and fans that the Josh Allen-offense needs a track star to become a fully functioning unit.
“I would say our offense did pretty good last year,” Beane said at last month’s owners’ meetings, repeating what he said in late February at the scouting combine. “I think when you look across the board, scoring, all that stuff, I think what Joe Brady and Josh and our offensive team did was pretty good. We like the addition of Josh Palmer to our group. We feel like he's a guy who really fits what we like to do, kind of another 'positionless' wide receiver. Am I sitting here going, ‘Man, we've got a hole there?’ No.”
It’s hard to argue with him. The Bills set a franchise record by scoring 525 points, and they didn’t even need the 17th game to top the previous mark of 501 set by the 2020 team in a 16-game season. They proceeded to add 87 more points in three playoff games, Allen was named NFL MVP, and there was no one in the receiving corps that anyone would consider a true speed merchant.
As the Bills get ready for next week’s draft, they have a receiving corps with a solid top four of Palmer, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, and Curtis Samuel. Their top two priorities in the first round should be either defensive tackle or cornerback, but if the board falls a certain way, it wouldn’t be crazy if Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden was gettable.
You must be registered for see images
Given his 2024 performance, plus the way his draft process has gone - he ran a 4.29 in the 40, the fast time among all receivers at the combine - there’s probably zero chance he makes it to Buffalo’s scheduled pick at No. 30. His stock has soared from originally being considered a late second or early third-round pick to now averaging pick No. 20 in the first round according to NFL Mock Draft Database which gathers information from dozens of mock drafts.
The Cowboys at No. 12, Chargers at No. 22 and Rams at No. 26 seem like his most obvious landing spots, so if the Bills covet him - they did meet with him at the combine - then they’ll probably need to trade up to get him. With their more obvious needs on defense, they may not have the appetite to do that, but if he were sitting there when they go on the clock, well, then they’d have an intriguing decision to make.
Of his meeting with the Bills’ brass at the combine, he said, “It was good, just going over the concepts and the type of way they run the offense. Obviously, playing with Josh Allen, he's a mobile quarterback, he likes to get out of the pocket so being able to make plays and extend plays for him, it'd be cool.”
Matthew Golden became 'the guy' at Texas
Golden began his college career at Houston and caught 76 passes for 988 yards and 13 TDs across two years before transferring to Texas in 2024 where he outplayed fellow transfer Isaiah Bond and became the No. 1 wide receiver for a team that reached the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
The 6-foot, 195-pounder caught 58 passes for 987 yards and nine TDs and he did big damage on ‘post’ and ‘go’ routes, a combined seven catches for 298 yards on those according to Pro Football Focus, exactly the routes the Bills need to get from someone which would open up so many other opportunities in the intermediate range for the other receivers plus tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox.
“The one-on-one routes to the boundary, I can get open to the boundary,” he said. “I can change my tempo, my speeds and be able to snap down and come back to the quarterback. I can stretch the field vertically. I also like to be in the run game. I take a lot of pride in blocking.”
Golden would look great in a Buffalo uniform, but the odds are against it happening because of his rise up draft boards, and the Bills knowing they could probably use one of their two second-round picks on a receiver.
“We’re always gonna look, you know that,” coach Sean McDermott said of adding a receiver in the draft. “I feel good about the guys that we have. I feel good about what we’ve done offensively. We’ve kept a heck of a lot of continuity offensively.”
What the draft analysts say about Matthew Golden
➤ Joe DeLeone of Pro Football Network said, “Golden is the most well-rounded receiver prospect. He combines fantastic athleticism with the ability to do all of the little things at a high enough level to carve out a role within an offense. Golden likely will never emerge as a primary target in the NFL, but he’s balanced enough to be a fantastic WR2 or WR3 on a team. His ability to create consistent separation with his speed or quick feet makes him a reliable target. He also made a number of highlight-worthy catches in his final few games of the season.”
➤ Mel Kiper of ESPN said, “One year with (Quinn) Ewers at Texas, Matthew Golden became the guy. Isaiah Bond, remember, he was the hyped transfer. Matthew Golden was not the hyped transfer but this was the guy Quinn Ewers went to early and often in those games. He had a drop every now and then but overall, he was the man. To put together the type of year he had solidifies him, in my opinion, as a borderline first-round pick.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social. Sign up for his Bills Blast newsletter here: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills draft needs include WR: Matthew Golden may be nice fit
Continue reading...
