Breven Honda
On Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Rams will be playing one of their biggest non-divisional matchups this season against the reigning NFC Champions Philadelphia Eagles.
The Rams are coming off a 29-23 overtime road victory at Indianapolis last week as rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua caught the game-winning score for his first career receiving touchdown from quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Nacua, who caught nine passes on 11 targets for 163 yards and a touchdown, celebrated the win so much, he nearly missed the postgame speech from head coach Sean McVay, which included giving the 2023 fifth-round pick a game ball.
It was a crucial win for the Rams, who returned to .500 and kept their season alive compared to being 1-3 entering a matchup that features Jalen Hurts and the undefeated Eagles (4-0).
McVay said Nacua has been able a big contributor for the entire offense, not only in the pass game.
“There’s a feel, there’s a toughness, there’s an ability to make contested catches,” McVay said about Nacua on Wednesday. “He’s illustrated all those things. I think what’s been as impressive as anything is if you look at the different ways that he’s contributing in the run game, whether it’s blocking defensive ends, safeties, he’s been a huge factor for us as well, not exclusive to making third down catches or some of those plays last week in the play action game.”
The production Nacua has in the run game has been seen in Kyren Williams’ success as the run game has become complimentary to the passing game.
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Puka Nacua has emerged as one of the NFL’s best players in 2023
It’s safe to say Nacua has emerged as a top receiver in the game this season, in place of the injured Cooper Kupp, who returned to practice this week and should go on Sunday.
The BYU alum has an NFL leading 39 receptions on 52 targets for 501 yards and a touchdown. He ranks second in the league in both receiving yards and receiving yards per game, only trailing last year’s Offensive Player of the Year, Justin Jefferson from Minnesota.
His 501 yards are also the most receiving yards in a player’s first four NFL games, surpassing Stefon Diggs’ 419 yards in 2015 and Anquan Boldin’s 464 yards in 2003.
In addition, Puka Nacua is currently outpacing both Kupp’s 2021 season and Calvin Johnson’s 2012 season when it comes to receiving yards through four games.
Nacua, who is Pro Football Focus’ third-highest graded rookie, has definitely stepped up in Kupp’s absence and can continue to be a factor in the Rams offense as Kupp continues to make his return to performance.
Through the first four weeks, Nacua, who only trails Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter and Miami De’von Achane on the PFF rookie list, is second in PFF grading among rookie receivers dating back to 2006 at 87.7, which only trails Jefferson during his 90.6 rating from his rookie season last year.
McVay said Nacua has been continuing to learn and adjust to the NFL in his rookie season from anyone that has that credibility.
“He asks all the right questions,” McVay saidof Puka Nacua. “The amount of time that he spends, whether it’s picking Cooper’s brain, spending time with guys that have done it, asking coaches, with Matthew, he’s got a great feel for the game. I think that’s consistent with any of these guys that have that production or that early maturity, especially a rookie like him.”
Puka Nacua will continue to succeed as Cooper Kupp returns
With the return of Kupp to the Rams offense, it puts in more hands to the pot for Stafford to find in the passing game.
As Kupp continues to find his way back into the offense, McVay said it will not matter who gets the passes from Stafford.
“I think you do what you think is best,” McVay said. “I think it just so happens that there’s been a lot of situations where (Nacua’s) been high in some of the progressions for Matthew and he’s been able to deliver in a big way.
“So, you credit Matthew. You credit Puka for being able to deliver on those things but there’s certain instances where it’s good to get a lot of different people involved and making sure they got to be able to defend the field in a different variety of ways.”
Being able to contain Nacua is going to be a difficult challenge for the Eagles as the Rams look for a big home victory against Philadelphia and move to 3-2 before another home matchup against Arizona the following week.
The last time these two teams faced each other was when the Rams defeated the Eagles 37-19 on Sept. 20, 2020. In that game, tight end Tyler Higbee caught all five of his targets for 54 yards and three touchdowns. Kupp had five receptions for 81 yards to lead the receivers.
