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Texas continued its treasured history of being a fixture on the opening night of the NFL Draft on Thursday night in Green Bay, and this time it was a skill player representing the burnt orange well on Day 1 from Lambeau Field.
With the No. 23 overall pick, the Green Bay Packers selected wide receiver Matthew Golden.
The talent Texas has produced through the decades has translated to the NFL level, with 47 Longhorns being picked in the first round going into the 2025 event. Texas had a program-record 14 players invited to the NFL Combine a few months ago in Indianapolis, and all that rich talent from Austin already translated to the opening round of the draft. Just last year, Texas set the program record for a 7-round draft by seeing 11 Longhorns selected in the 3-day draft.
Texas, which came 2 victories from winning the national title in 2024, is already off and running to beat that record with the selection of Golden, who terrorized SEC defenses last fall in the Longhorns’ first season in the conference. Golden caught 58 passes for 987 yards and 9 touchdowns in 2024, and he was able to extend the field with the best of them, averaging 17 yards per catch.
The 6-foot, 195-pound native of Houston will now be asked to do the same at the NFL level. Golden’s speed should help, as he was clocked at a ridiculous 4.29 seconds in the 40-yard dash, which made him attractive enough to go early on Thursday night.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
