After the first four games of the 2025 NFL season, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has hauled in 503 yards on 42 receptions, both league best.
Puka is currently on track to have over 2,000 receiving yards on the season, which would be a historic milestone first if he were to achieve it.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford was behind Calvin Johnson’s historic 1,964 and Cooper Kupp’s 1,947 receiving yard seasons, the top two most receiving yards in a single season.
Nacua has been a key part of the Rams‘ offense since being drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft at the 177th overall pick. In his first two seasons as a professional, Puka logged 2,476 yards and nine touchdowns.
With how Nacua has been performing after four weeks, one analyst believes it puts the wide receiver as the frontrunner for an award.
Puka Nacua Predicted To Win OPOY
GettyLos Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua
Puka Nacua had his best career game in the Week 4 victory against the undefeated Indianapolis Colts. The former BYU Cougar recorded 170 yards on 13 receptions and a touchdown to go along with it.
ESPN’s Ben Barnwell dropped his earlier predictions for the end-of-the-year awards, with Barnwell naming Nacua as the frontrunner for the Offensive Player of the Year award.
“Nacua is commanding targets on 42.4% of his routes so far this season, which is one of the highest rates we’ve ever seen for a receiver through four games. He leads the league in just about every raw metric,” Barnwell wrote. And of course, it’s difficult to overstate just how essential Nacua is to the entire Rams enterprise.
He’s an excellent run blocker, with the Rams routinely using him to dig out bigger players on duo and even taking on edge defenders when they go to outside zone runs. With the play-action game then triggers off that threat, Nacua will motion like he’s about to take on a linebacker, only to run a route through offensive linemen and away from defenders… But if you need a first down, there’s nobody else in the league you would rather have lining up on your side of the ball right now.”
In Puka’s rookie season, he logged 501 receiving yards after four games while being the WR2 next to Cooper Kupp. Now, as WR1, he could achieve similar numbers to Kupp’s historic season.
Praise From His Quarterback
GettyRams QB Matthew Stafford and WR Puka Nacua
Over the course of the multiple seasons they’ve played together, Matthew Stafford has targeted Puka Nacia for 226 receptions.
Nacua currently has 42 catches after four games, almost at the halfway point of his rookie season’s total receptions at 105.
“I think his (Puka Nacua’s) play style rubs off on everybody on our team, not just offense. I think our defense looks at him as like, ‘… We’ll ride with that guy all day.’ And I know that’s how we feel on offense,” Stafford said of Nacua, via FanSided.
Nacua is just 24 years old and appears to be settling in quite well under Sean McVay’s offense. If he continues to perform, he could break 2,000 yards.
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