Puka Nacua has been one of the most impressive rookies not just on the Rams, but anywhere in the NFL this season. He’s second in receptions, fourth in receiving yards and first in total targets through three games, hanging with the likes of Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill and Keenan Allen in some categories.
For a fifth-round rookie, that’s incredibly impressive. It also makes you wonder how he slipped that far in the draft.
If not for injuries and subpar athletic testing, Nacua likely would’ve gone much earlier, and that’s something Rams GM Les Snead knows. During an interview on the “Coach McVay Show”, Snead said if Nacua ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, either the Rams would’ve had to draft him earlier or he would’ve ended up on another team.
The Rams were high on him regardless, viewing him as a Deebo Samuel-type pre-draft.
“It’s interesting, what we’ve seen come to fruition, and I think one of our scouts termed him – his nickname a little bit from our draft room was, hey, ‘the Deebo Samuel of the Mountain West’ in that, at BYU, what they did do was throw a lot of bubble routes to Puka and just let him become Larry Csonka after that,” Snead said. “We’ve seen how he’s tough to bring down, how he’s always falling forward in the NFL. You can imagine what he might do in the Mountain West so that was kind of his nickname. You see some of those skills in the run after catch, toughness.”
Snead has obviously been thrilled about the play of Nacua through three games, particularly as a fifth-round rookie coming in and earning the trust of Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford so quickly.
“You could be as conscientious as you want to be, but you might not have had enough experience to get to their level of physics. That just takes time. For him to come in and do that from OTAs to now is pretty special.”
Nacua has helped replace Cooper Kupp during the star receiver’s absence and while his role is likely to change (and probably shrink) a bit when Kupp returns, there’s no way the Rams are putting him on the bench after the start he’s gotten off to.
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