While I won't say it's a bad pick, I also can't say I'm doing somersaults over it. I was really hoping for a trade back, but if nobody's willing to make a deal, that's hard to do. I feel very strongly that Gute wanted to slide back a bit, too; he'd almost have to have lost his mind
not to have wanted to.
Golden's going to help the team; his speed will open up a lot more options for he rest of the offense - both the WRs and the RBs. We all saw last year how very much more effective and efficient Lafelur's offense was when Watson was there to stretch the field, and how anemic and easily defended it was when he was not on the field. Golden is a WR who has been compared to Brandon Aiyuk, and should be able to step right in and take over Watson's role.
I would have rather traded back and taken Hairston, and then Higgins in Round 2, because I think that would have made our team better than whatever we're probably going to do instead. But as I say every time Gute does something that puzzles me, the man knows a lot more than i do and is a lot better at his job than I would be. Of course the man does sometimes make mistakes, but it's way too early to say whether this is one of them
He clearly saw "speedster WR" as a higher priority than I did, so i just have to assume he knows more than I do. I'm sure he's got ideas for EDG, CB, and maybe DT tomorrow and into Saturday, so we'll just see how ti plays out.
Bottom line is - Gute made the team better tonight; maybe quite a bit better. Tomorrow, he'll have more chances to make it even better. Let's wait and see where we're sitting Saturday night.
If Watson somehow gets back in the mix late in the year? the speed we’ll have with both guys simultaneous will either cause deep coverage issues for opponents or allow Jacobs and Lloyd to gash you underneath.
Plus, it pretty much eliminates any temptation to hurry Watson back into the lineup any sooner than he may be ready. If the recovery takes a little longer than expected, ok - no worries. We can ease him back in at a pace that's medically advisable, and come January.... wow. Look out.