Just two months ago, the Kansas City Chiefs seemed headed toward an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl championship. But in Super Bowl LIX, they got steamrolled by the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22, and it wasn’t even as close as that final score may suggest.
All of a sudden, the seemingly mighty, unbeatable Chiefs were a team with multiple roster holes that needed a minor infusion of talent to be able to reach the NFL mountaintop once again.
They could use a legitimate alpha wide receiver, which is something they haven’t had since they traded Tyreek Hill three years ago. Rashee Rice, who has shown promise in his first two seasons, is expected back from the knee injury he suffered in Week 4 last season, but the jury is still out on him.
A new NFL mock draft by Nate Tice and Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports has Kansas City taking a chance of University of Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden with the No. 31 pick in April.
“Offensive line is very much in play here, and there are some interesting names the Chiefs could look at,” Tice and McDonald wrote. “They instead dip their pen back into the Longhorn ink and take another Texas wide receiver in Golden. He is a smooth athlete who can win against press. He would give Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense yet another weapon to open things up, beat man coverage and hold the fort until Rashee Rice returns from injury.”
Golden transferred to Texas for the 2024 season after spending two years at the University of Houston. He caught 58 passes for 987 yards and nine touchdowns in 2024, and in his three-year college career, he totaled 1,975 receiving yards as well as 722 kick return yards and 24 total touchdowns.
He ran the 40-yard dash in an outstanding 4.29 seconds at the scouting combine, which gives him the speed to become a trusted target for Mahomes downfield. He is fairly explosive, and Lance Zierlein’s NFL.com scouting report on him said that one of his strengths is that he “meets the moment with big plays in big games.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and his staff have done a fairly good job of developing young wideouts such as Rice and Xavier Worthy. Perhaps Golden could give them another project player to work on who could extend the team’s championship window if he pans out.
