Turf Show Times
When Puka Nacua first arrived in Los Angeles, he made it a point to make his presence felt around the facility. The ‘Breakfast Club’ that used to only include Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp, now had a fifth-round rookie sitting at the table. Nacua was attached to Kupp at the hip and that showed in his game. While Nacua may have been the Robert Woods 2.0 in the offense, there were certainly aspects and nuances of Kupp’s game that Nacua pulled from.
Much like Kupp, Nacua had a physical playing style. Coming in as a raw route runner, Nacua learned some of Kupp’s tendencies and nuances on in-breaking routes. His routes went from being imperfect to adding precision and technicality. The fifth-round pick out of BYU learned his preparation habits from Kupp and he consistently won in the short and intermediate areas of the field.
However, following last season, the Rams moved on from Kupp after a down year in 2024. That made Nacua the leader in the receiver room. That changed when the Rams signed Davante Adams in free agency. Nacua went from learning from Kupp to learning from Adams. As Nacua said at the time,
“The ability to learn from another all-time great has been — I feel like I’m stealing — I’m like a kid in the candy store. I’ve had Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay, Cooper Kupp and now Davante Adams. My life is pretty good, I can’t complain too much. It’s gonna be fun.”
Right now, it’s hard not to argue for Nacua as a top-3 wide receiver in the NFL. A serious argument can be made that he’s the best wide receiver in the league. While he missed a game due to injury, Nacua leads the NFL in yards per route run with 4.06. What makes that even more impressive is that with the Rams running more 13 personnel, Nacua is running routes on just 68.8 percent of dropbacks since Week 9. That ranks 75th in the NFL. For comparison, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has run routes on 92.9 percent of his team’s dropbacks in that same timeframe.
Since Week 9, Nacua is third in the NFL in receptions and leads the NFL in receiving yards. Again, he leads the NFL in yards per route run. He’s doing that while running a route at a near 25 percent lower rate. That’s not a knock on Smith-Njigba or other top wide receivers. Nacua is just so incredibly efficient.
The Rams have almost created a ‘Frankenstein’ at wide receiver in Nacua. He has gone from a near Kupp clone to adding aspects of Adams’ game to that. Heading into the season, Nacua spoke specifically about taking some of the manipulation aspects in Adams’ route running and adding it to his game. Early in the game against the Lions, you can see this from Adams. At the top of the route, Adams gives a head bob and opens his hips that gets the defender moving inside. That creates separation...
