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Matthew Golden appears to be one of the biggest winners from combine week in Indianapolis.
On Thursday, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah released his updated ranking of the top 50 prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft. Golden jumped up a whopping 7 spots to No. 15 overall on Jeremiah’s latest big board. In addition to be placed in the top-15, Golden is now the highest-ranked wide receiver in this year’s draft class.
Here’s some analysis from Jeremiah on the talented Texas wide receiver:
Golden has average size, but he plays with tremendous polish, instincts and toughness. He spends a lot of time operating out of the slot. He can defeat press coverage with quickness or strength. He understands how to tempo routes and sets up defenders down the field. He can change gears when the ball goes up and he tracks it naturally. He does a nice job of staying grounded through the catch when working on crossers. He has the utmost confidence in his ball skills. After the catch, he is very strong/sturdy to pull through tackles and he can make defenders miss in space. I love his temperament on the field — he plays with an edge. Overall, Golden doesn’t have dynamic traits, but he’s a natural football player and a quarterback’s best friend. He’s dependable.
With this move up the board, Golden is now ranked higher than players like Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka and Mizzou’s Luther Burden III, to name a few.
Golden was a big reason why the Longhorns reached the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2024. The former Houston transfer caught 58 passes for 987 yards and an SEC-best 9 touchdowns last fall.
Now, as he’s turning pro, he has a chance to make more history for Texas. If he goes in the 1st round, it would mark back-to-back years that Texas has produced a wide receiver on Day 1 of the NFL Draft. That’s never happened before in program history. In fact, Xavier Worthy in 2024 became just the 3rd Texas wide receiver ever to go in Round 1.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
