Who Is Packers Returner Coleman Owen, Who Replaced Skyy Moore, Matthew Golden?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Skyy Moore going on injured reserve, who would return punts for the Green Bay Packers against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night?

Would it be Matthew Golden, who replaced Moore in that role against Chicago and had a 17-yard return? Or would they find someone else so Golden could focus on playing offense?

That answer became apparent. Usually when punter Daniel Whelan goes through his pregame routine, a member of the equipment staff catches the punts. On Sunday, it was receiver Coleman Owen.

Coleman Owen? Who’s Coleman Owen?

In the wake of Jayden Reed’s season-ending injury, the Packers signed Owen to the practice squad on Sept. 29. He had a superb senior season at Ohio in 2024 but went undrafted. He signed with the Indianapolis Colts and spent the season on their practice squad. He played in two games with a 28.2-yard average on six kickoff returns and 2 yards on one punt return. He did not catch any passes.

At Ohio in 2024, he caught 78 passes for 1,245 yards and eight touchdowns. He also averaged 7.8 yards per punt return with a 61-yard touchdown. He spent his first five collegiate seasons at Northern Arizona. He averaged 11.8 yards per punt return with an 85-yard touchdown and 24.5 yards per kickoff return.

According to Pro Football Focus, he had two career muffed punts – in 2021 and 2023 at Northern Arizona – on a combined 35 punt returns and 53 fair catches.

Owen is the quintessential slot receiver. He’s a bit short (5-foot-10 1/8) and not super-fast (4.53 in the 40) but has excellent short-area quickness for the make-you-miss skill needed to gain yards after the catch.

“I felt good,” Owen told KPRC-TV in Houston in April 2025. “It was really fun to go out there and do it after so much training and preparation. They’re getting a guy who knows how to come in and work hard. Being a former walk-on at my last school, I know how it feels to come in and put my head down and work and contribute any way I can. That’s the kind of guy I am.”

Because he slid under the recruiting radars, he thought lacrosse might be his sport.

Owen didn’t think he’d play college football. Rather, he thought his college sport might be lacrosse.

“Didn't really have an opportunity to go anywhere,” he said after Ohio’s pro day. “Very thankful that the Northern Arizona coaches came in last second, offered me a walk-on spot there. So, I walked on there, earned a scholarship, made some of my best friends, my fiancé at that school, just fell in love with that place.

“I'm so thankful that those coaches walked into my high school coach's office at the end of my senior year, and gave me a chance to play this game, because it's brought me a lot of friends and great times. It's unbelievable.”

The decision to take Golden off punt returns was probably by necessity given his enormous importance to the offense.

“We’ll kind of work through that through the course of the week,” coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “Certainly MG’s value, he’s so valuable as a wide receiver for us, but it could be a week-to-week thing with that.”

Special teams coordinator Cam Achord minimized the risk of Golden.

“If you’re blocking well and the guy’s going to run and get tackled – offensively he’s going to get tackled too,” Achord said on Tuesday. “It’s the big collisions you want to avoid. We show up a little bit more on the kickoff, kickoff return game. You know, it’s a lot less space with those plays. You know a lot more bodies, so you get a lot more big, high contact plays than you do.

“Actually, it’s a lot more one-on-one tackles in the punting game. So I think there’s probably, there’s more injuries on the returners in the kickoff return than there is on punt, punt return. And you can always fair catch the ball, right? So, you can limit the hits by just fair catching, if you really want to.”

The team worked “multiple” players in the return role this week, Achord said.

“I think you just work through everything and who all the options are,” Achord said. “We work multiple guys at practice for that reason throughout the week and once we sit down and talk about as a staff, like what’s the best situation for the team to make sure we’re getting the ball back, getting the offense in a good field position situation, whatever we go with, I’m going to be happy with for sure.”

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