Rams’ Puka Nacua can take his historic pace to start 2025 and reach a level no WR has before beginning on Thursday night
When you ask the common fan to name the best WRs in the league, there are a few usual names that are mentioned. Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, etc. Well, to start 2025, no one has statistically been better than Los Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua. In fact, no WR in the history of […]
When you ask the common fan to name the best WRs in the league, there are a few usual names that are mentioned. Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, etc. Well, to start 2025, no one has statistically been better than Los Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua.
In fact, no WR in the history of the NFL has had a better start to a season than Nacua is having right now. Nacua has 42 catches for 503 yards…through four weeks. That puts him on pace to catch 179 passes for 2,138 yards. That would eclipse the NFL record for single-season catches by 30 and yards by 174.
So what does that mean? What would it accomplish? It would make voters take a long, hard look at giving an NFL WR the regular-season MVP award for the first time ever. But to do that, much like a Heisman Trophy winner, he has to have his moments when the lights are the brightest.
He gets his first chance to do that in a rivalry game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Puka Nacua can kick off his NFL MVP campaign with a big game vs. the 49ers on TNF
Nacua just won player of the week for the NFC after his downright gaudy stat line against the Indianapolis Colts, who were undefeated heading into that game by the way. He went for 170 yards, a touchdown, and 13 catches on 15 targets.
What is insanely impressive about his start is the efficiency with which he is playing. To catch 86.7% of your targets is impressive. To catch that high percentage on such a high volume is insane. But here is what’s absurd: Nacua is doing that while averaging 12 yards a reception on the season. Not five, not nine, 12.
Now, one can argue that having a play-calling genius, an elite quarterback, a potential future Hall of Famer opposite of him (Davante Adams) and playing poor secondaries have all helped. I would agree. But that’s why this game against the 49ers is huge for Nacua.
If he comes out and drops another triple-digit receiving yard game on double-digit catches, Nacua will have to be atop the MVP conversation. For a fifth-round pick, who was drafted to be a depth piece, what Nacua has accomplished when healthy is unlike anything we’ve seen since the likes of Antonio Brown, who was drafted in the sixth round. But even for AB, it took time for him to develop into that player.
Nacua has been doing this since day one.
So out of the realm of possibilities? Absolutely not. The pace might be unsustainable, but if Nacua gets even close to the numbers he’s on target to hit, he will be more than deserving of a few MVP votes, if not the award outright.
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