Latest news with #PukaNacua
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Rams' 25 most important players for 2025 – No. 2: WR Puka Nacua
Puka Nacua's ascent to stardom was rapid – as fast as any player in recent memory for someone drafted as late as he was. He went from being a fifth-round rookie who was hardly a lock to make the 53-man roster when camp began to nearly winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and becoming one of the most popular players in football. He's well past just being popular now after a terrific second season. He's undeniably a top-tier player regardless of position, a legitimate candidate to compete for Offensive Player of the Year. His value to the Los Angeles Rams is huge, both as a receiver and a blocker in the run game. With Cooper Kupp gone, Nacua's importance to the team is even higher. He ranks No. 2 on our list of the team's 25 most important players entering the 2025 season. How he got here Nacua was a relatively unknown player to most in 2023 when the Rams selected him with the 177th overall pick in the fifth round. The BYU product was injured often in college and didn't test particularly well before the draft, causing his stock to slip. 2024 stats 11 games (11 starts): 106 targets, 79 catches, 990 yards, 3 touchdowns, 11 carries, 46 yards, 1 touchdown Projected role Kupp is out of the picture, which naturally elevates Nacua's opportunities a little bit. However, the signing of Davante Adams prevents Nacua from being the overwhelming favorite to be the go-to receiver. Both Nacua and Adams will both see a ton of targets from Matthew Stafford, especially considering they're different types of receivers. Nacua will play in the slot often and also line up wide to the right, while Adams' best spot might be as an X-receiver to the left side of the field where he'll be isolated against a cornerback. Why he's important Nacua missed five of the first six games last season and in those games, the Rams were 2-3. They also lost the opener against the Lions in a game where Nacua left in the second quarter with a knee injury. It's no coincidence that the Rams went 8-2 in the other 10 games, showing just how valuable he is to the team. If not for his five-game injury absence, he might've led the NFL in receiving yards; he was third in yards per game, averaging 90.0 in his second season, trailing only Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. The Rams don't have a receiver who can do the things that he can, from catching drag routes and turning them into big gains to blocking on the edge to running fades down the sideline. He improved in a big way last season despite his numbers declining, displaying more reliable hands, better route running and footwork, too. Los Angeles' offense is just different when he's on the field. Follow Rams Wire on X, Facebook and Threads for more coverage!
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
ESPN analyst puts Rams WR Puka Nacua in 'elite' tier
Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua is reaching rarified air as he enters his third NFL season. The former fifth-round pick is coming off another great year despite missing six games after he finished with 79 receptions for 990 yards and three touchdowns. Now, he'll line up alongside veteran Davante Adams with Matthew Stafford still throwing him the ball in 2025. While there is debate as to whether or not Nacua is one of the best receivers in the league already, ESPN's Kevin Clark believes the Rams' star is already among other elite pass-catchers and put him on his second tier of receivers alongside A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, CeeDee Lamb and Nico Collins. Nacua proved in just two seasons that he can be one of the best receivers in the league. Not only did he produce all over the field in 2024, but he also had 115 receptions for first downs. Nacua moved the chains on 17% of the routes he ran, too, which outpaced every other receiver in the league this past season. Regardless of where he lands among the pantheon of receivers, there's no debating that Nacua is one of the top young pass-catchers in the NFL. He's only 24 years old and is already Stafford's No. 1 target — even with Adams in tow. This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Puka Nacua in 'elite' WR tier, per ESPN analyst
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rams WR Puka Nacua was a first-down machine in 2024
Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua missed five of the first six games of the 2024 NFL season but still produced a sensational year with nearly 1,000 receiving yards on 79 receptions. Part of how Nacua accomplished this feat is because of his ability to convert receptions into first downs. According to Fantasy Points Data, Nacua caught a pass that resulted in a first down on 17% of the routes he ran this past season. That number ranked No. 1 among all receivers in 2024, well ahead of other stalwarts like A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Ja'Marr Chase. Nacua is used to leading NFL receivers after a great production season, but this number shows why Matthew Stafford preferred passing the ball to him over others in 2024. Nacua simply got the job done and moved the chains. Davante Adams, interestingly enough, did not make the top-16 list. That could partially be caused by the teams he was on in 2024 (the New York Jets and Las Vegas Raiders) or that his routes weren't necessarily always to the chains. He saw a lot of targets either well downfield or in the short-yardage, which don't always equate to first downs. Nacua is a chain-mover, while the addition of Adams should only make life easier for Stafford on a down-to-down situation. It's night, though, to have a special talent at receiver and one that can be relied upon on a play-by-play basis. This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams WR Puka Nacua was a first-down machine in 2024
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Puka Nacua on new-look Rams receiving room: 'I'm really excited'
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz spoke with the Los Angeles Rams wide receiver about the team's addition of Davante Adams, what he's learned from Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford and what he's most looking forward to in his third NFL season. Puka joined Yahoo Sports on behalf of Gatorade's National Player of the Year. View more Video Transcript Jason Fitz with Yahoo Sports hanging out with the NFL superstar Puka Nacua, who is, by the way, the Gatorade Player of the Year award ceremonies. Let's start with a little bit of football. This year, no Cooper Kupp. Devonte comes in. How different is your role in the wide receiver room now that it's changed so much for the Rams? I think, uh, just trying to continue to be myself, uh, like you said, we lost Cooper Kupp this year, but the ability to add, um, Devonte Adams has been fantastic, and to have somebody who's been in the NFL and doing it at a high level for a very long time, um, is always a great addition because the information that he's willing to share and to give to us younger guys on the, on the, in the wide receiver room specifically has helped a lot of these guys grow confidence and to learn the game in a different way, and, uh, I'm really excited to be out there on the football field with them. I mean, at Yahoo, we've sort of made this a joke at this point. Never doubt Sean McVay, right? Like it just feels like McVay's offense is always make it work. What is it about those offenses with McVay particularly that makes everybody so successful? I think his attention to detail on the defensive side of the ball, I think it's something that separates him to know how, how, how the hook dropper, how the hook defender is dropping, and how to, how to manipulate him, and then when you add Coach McVay's genius mind with Matthew Stafford's cannon of an arm, and also his genius mind, I'm like, that's a recipe for success. I'm like, the defenses hate to see us on their schedule. Which is funny to me 'cause you're sort of being more like you're early in your career, right? But in a couple of years, you're gonna have to be that guy. So how much about leadership and all of those things are you learning not just from your wide receiver room, but from the rest of your team? Um, I, I, I feel like I'm learning every day. The ability to have conversations. I, I, I wake up in the morning to go be in the QB meetings with Matthew Stafford. I, I, I want to watch the tape when he's watching it at the same time just because he, he's looking at so many different things. He's communicating, um, to all 10 other players on the football field at the same time, and to watch him do it, it, it really, it truly is art. So I, I, I don't take any of those moments for granted. How much does it change for you now though? This is year 3. So when you look at your game and you think about what you've gone through in the growth and just being a pro, like, how different do you feel right now in year 3 compared to where you've been before? Yeah, I, I, yeah, we're coming up on training camp, and I remember my rookie year of just absolutely sweating and being so nervous about showing up for the first day of training camp, and uh now I, I, um, I'm still a little nervous. I'm every time you go and you're getting back into the football, it definitely is a different field, but I'm super excited because uh the, the things that I've learned and the, the things that have helped me. Have success, um, to be able to implement them and get back to hanging out with the guys because there's nothing better than being around them. OK, but also year 3 after year 3 contracts can come up and I mean, you had to see Garrett Wilson get paid and it has to at least make a little bell go off in the back of your mind, right? Like guys are getting paid earlier and earlier and you're gonna be up for it soon. Does that play into the back of your mind at all? I think a little bit, but uh me and Garrett Wilson actually we are the same class of high school graduation, so to be able to see somebody that I, I, I've got a chance to see his career is pretty cool and uh it definitely gives you motivation when you see people signing after 3. When you're playing the game, what's the go to Gatorade flavor? And, and why you're gonna tell me a color here and we're gonna have a whole conversation, but what's the go to Gatorade flavor for you? The glacier freeze is my go to any day, any time of the day. I'm like, I could wake up in the morning first thing cold glacier freeze right down. I don't even need water. I just knock it down. I'm like it is top tier. I have it I have it at the games. I'm I'm on the sideline and I got it. I got the Gatorade towel. This is literally me on the sideline with my Gatorade towel and the glacier freeze. The bottle literally just says my name and this only blue glacier. Freeze that they put it in there. Um, I would throw the bottle if they brought me, uh, any other color, but they wouldn't do that to me, so I know I always got the blue one with me. What's it mean for you when you look at these kids and they're out there at the Gatorade Player of the Year? It's such a cool experience in LA out there all week, and it culminates with the ESPYs, the whole thing. It's a really awesome thing. What's it mean for somebody to be included in that group? I think it's a testament to them as an athlete and then also their family because as an athlete, I know I've had five, my brothers have helped my career and helped put me in this opportunity or put me in this place where I am right now, and uh not uh, but every athlete that was out there, whether it was a track athlete or basketball, or the baseball or the soccer athletes, they've had their parents, their family, a coach who's helped get them in this moment, and I know they want to have success for themselves, but also they want to be able to show the people that have invested in them that their investment has officially paid off because they're still very young, but uh they're putting in the work to make sure that they they are represented the right way. This is what we know: we got to keep you hydrated. We gotta make sure you got the right ice, and when you get paid, you're gonna be able to have all the blue glacier you ever want for the rest of your life. Puka, congratulations on killing it so far. We love watching your success. Keep crushing it, man. Thanks for hanging out with me. Thank you, Jason. I appreciate that, brother. Close
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
2025 Fantasy football drafts feature four new first-rounders. Are they worthy?
Out with the old; in with the new. Entering the 2025 fantasy football season, there's a 33% turnover in the players being selected as first-round picks. Do the newcomers deserve the faith of fantasy managers, and are the demoted now bargains? According to NFFC's ADP as of July 17, Malik Nabers (No. 7 overall by ADP, WR4), Ashton Jeanty (9, RB4), Puka Nacua (10, WR6) and Brian Thomas (12, WR7) are now being valued in the first round. Advertisement The players they're replacing? A.J. Brown (18, WR10), Jonathan Taylor (21, RB9), Garrett Wilson (26, WR12) and Breece Hall (34, RB13). With the NFFC's valuation of the newly anointed projected first-round picks above, I'm using my positional rankings in this section. I don't mess with overall rankings because of the vast differences between Flex 9 and Flex 10 formats, but I grade all these players — except Nacua — as worthy of their new first-round ADP in three-WR and Flex leagues. He's hamstrung because of his quarterback situation, but that didn't crush his value last year. Nabers was top-10 in targets in the red zone and inside the 10-yard line, where he ranked third (in percentage). He was the 10th fastest player in max speed, just a whisker above Marvin Harrison (I'm surprised he didn't trounce Harrison). However, he won just three of 17 tight targets, a win rate that was 74th among WRs. His yards after catch were negative relative to expected. Nabers can fairly be called a volume player, but I think the targets are earned. Overall, I'm slightly below market on Nabers. Jeanty's status as a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft matters. This century, 11 of 17 running backs selected in the top 10 had over 200 PPR points as rookies (65%), seven of 17 had over 246 points (41%) and just four of 17 were flat-out busts (24%). His team probably has the 22nd-ranked offense as a floor and the upside of an average offense. Quarterback Geno Smith is at least average and drives my projected range for the offense. Las Vegas' offensive line is generally young and has some upside, but it doesn't enter the season highly regarded. However, we know less about offensive lines in football in the summer than we do about any other position group. Jeanty opened as one of the long shots to lead the NFL in rushing touchdowns at 50-1 odds, and most major sportsbooks have him at 28-1 now; his rushing-yards-leader prop is 18-1 on FanDuel. Fantasy is way more bullish on him than the oddsmakers. I can see Jeanty making his way to all the magazine covers in 2026 and being valued as the top overall pick. Advertisement Nacua ran 239 routes with Cooper Kupp. When he did, Nacua was targeted at a rate of 38% vs. Kupp's 24%. Davante Adams is better than Kupp, so maybe that's 33% to 29% now, which means I expect a 13% decline in usage for Nacua. His 17-game pace last year was 128 receptions, 1,624 yards and five touchdowns. Even if you adjust for the missed games, his red zone and inside-the-10 target rates are bad for a true alpha. He doesn't have the speed to score from deep — 70th in max radar speed behind Amon-Ra St. Brown and, yikes, Adam Thielen. Nacua was also one of the lowest-targeted WRs in the red zone at just 16%. Expect Adams to dominate that area of the field. Thomas did very little with Trevor Lawrence. In basically eight games with Lawrence, Thomas had a 33-580-5 line, which offered great value (the best value, basically, according to me) based on where he was drafted in 2024. And I refuse to believe Mac Jones is better for Thomas than Lawrence. With Jones, Thomas' prorated numbers for a full season were 97-1,263-9, but will Lawrence be able to sufficiently feed a first-round WR? You have to ask whether you think Lawrence, the supposed generational QB prospect, is as talented as Baker Mayfield. Under new head coach Liam Coen, we'll likely see something akin to last year's Mayfield-Buccaneers offense from Jacksonville. According to the radar, Thomas was the fastest WR in the league last year. He was also top-20 in generating yards over expected per catch. Travis Hunter playing alongside him makes his situation better, not worse; the Jaguars' passing tree will be very narrow. Given their fall from first-round status, how do we now value the banished? Brown's environment is a shame. Due to the Eagles' reliance on the run, he would have needed a monstrous 30% target rate to reach just 134 total targets in 17 games last year (he actually got less than 25% in his 2024 starts). Advertisement It's the size of the pie that's the problem. Will the Eagles' defense and running game efficiency regress? Sure. But they'll still be extremely strong in both areas. Here's the bottom line on Brown: Put him on the Bengals and Ja'Marr Chase on the Eagles, and Brown would be the WR1 and Chase the WR9. You can't let Brown fall too far because there is a (maybe 30%) chance the Eagles will throw much more in 2025. Brown was third in YAC per catch over expected for WRs, and the two receivers above him had far fewer catches. He's a great player. I have to start by saying how much the nerds hate Taylor, who ProFootballFocus rated the second-worst among qualifying RBs in the NFL last year. I'm ignoring these largely subjective assessments, but they must be noted. Taylor's great year in our game was under the radar unless you played him or against him in the fantasy postseason. Most of the fantasy community had checked out by then. He averaged over 100 rushing yards per game for the season. He also averaged about a TD per game on a team that was 17th in scoring (surprisingly high, at least to me). Can he be more productive as a receiver? Taylor only averaged 2.2 targets per game with Joe Flacco. With Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley averaged 3.9 targets per game. I would expect similar numbers out of Taylor with Jones. With Anthony Richardson, Taylor averaged 1.1 targets per game. If Richardson gets the nod, the projection is about 25 targets per 17 games vs. an expected 65 targets per 17 games with Jones – a huge swing in value. Wilson has franchise WR money (now) and ability. He's very fast — Jameson Williams' top speed on the radar was 21.03 mph and Wilson's was 21.01. He wins 38% of contested catches, well over average. He's positive in expected YAC. Last year, after Davante Adams arrived, Wilson was used too often on clear-out routes; for the year, he had the fourth-highest rate of nine routes, according to TruMedia, at 25.5%. What a waste. He was 14th in the lowest rate of combined in or out routes, which is even more of a disservice, given his skill set and quick feet. Now he's the only show in town, so the Jets' expected passing volume shouldn't hurt him. New York will have a different offense in 2025 (Detroit's, but with Wilson cast as St. Brown). In 2023, DJ Moore finished with a 96-1,364-8 line, and 72-1,109-8 came when Justin Fields was under center. When they played college ball together, Wilson and Fields combined for 1,155 yards and 11 TDs during Wilson's first and second years. However, Fields has been a terrible passing quarterback who loses so many dropbacks to sacks and scrambles, although both rates have declined in the past two years. Still, many of Fields' previous issues will likely continue. Advertisement See the article I wrote to kick off this draft season. To that, I'll add that Hall broke a tackle once every 30 carries (40th among qualifiers). You can push back and say Hall was third with 80% of team rushing attempts inside the 5-yard line last year, but this is a new staff, and Hall is below average in converting short-yardage and goal-line runs. The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt anticipates Braelon Allen could serve as the Jets' David Montgomery with Hall their Jahmyr Gibbs (though probably not with the 2024 near 50/50 goal-line split). (Photo of Malik Nabers: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
