Puka Nacua is in his first full offseason as a member of the Los Angeles Rams and he didn’t take much time off after the 2023 season ended. He linked up with Cooper Kupp and worked out at the receiver’s house, staying in shape and shedding some weight in advance of his second NFL season.
Kupp has one of the best work ethics of any player in the league so Nacua picked the right teammate to train with. Kupp didn’t go easy on Puka, either. He put the second-year receiver through some serious workouts, to the point where Nacua was puking every day for a week.
During the first day of the Rams’ offseason program Monday, Nacua told reporters that he threw up on Kupp’s lawn repeatedly while going through conditioning training.
Kupp, understandably, was none too thrilled with his training partner.
“A lot of top-end speed that we’re working on,” Nacua said Monday. “His conditioning days were some of the tougher ones. I remember the first week I came back, I think I threw up every day of the week and he wasn’t a fan of that because it was all on his lawn.”
“‘You’re throwing up in my bushes, Puka. Thanks.’ But it was super fun and to come back today, I feel like I didn’t miss a beat. There was kind of an idea, like, I don’t know what I’m going to do for the offseason but following Coop’s plan made it super easy and is sending me the right way.”
Los Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua said he trained with Cooper Kupp this offseason, which included the unfortunate business of puking on his teammate’s lawn during the first week of training. He’s better now. pic.twitter.com/Cv2VpWTljQ
— Eric Williams (@eric_d_williams) April 15, 2024
More like Puke-a Nacua, am I right?
Kupp and Nacua became close during the 2023 season, with Nacua even joining the “Breakfast Club” to watch film alongside Kupp and Matthew Stafford. Nacua couldn’t have a better mentor to learn from in Los Angeles than Kupp, a former Triple Crown and Offensive Player of the Year winner in the NFL.
Nacua said he’s already slimmed down about 10 pounds this offseason, dropping from the 220 pounds he played at last year to around 210 now. Knowing how hard Kupp’s workouts are, it’s easy to see how he lost that much weight so quickly.