Sarah Barshop
Watch Puka Nacua on the sideline earlier than every offensive possession, and you may see the Los Angeles receiver ask a teammate to hit his pads. Arduous.
Gamers from tight finish Tyler Higbee to left guard Steve Avila, deal with AJ Arcuri and former Rams middle Brian Allen have participated within the ritual over Nacua's three years within the league. Nacua mentioned he has a “combination of fellows” who've achieved it, however he is choosy: “I need any individual who's received a great slap in them,” Nacua mentioned. “I do not need them to child me, for positive.”
“The primary one is at all times like, ‘Oh, go on the market. Good job, buddy'” Nacua mentioned. “I am like, ‘No, no, no, that is by no means what I need from you guys.' The primary one usually finally ends up being six slaps as a result of the primary three, they're like, ‘I do not wish to damage you.' I am like, ‘All proper, come on. I did not ask you to offer me a bit of pat on the again.'”
Nacua performs the ritual partially due to a sense from when he was a bit of child. Rising up with older brothers, he felt their depth within the automobile on the best way to massive video games, like his peewee soccer championships.
“Being within the automobile with them and the music, the tone, the depth and undoubtedly getting hit [by them while getting] out of the automobile as I used to be working on the market for the soccer area, part of that takes me again,” Nacua mentioned. “I feel it is at all times good to get a bit of get up on the sideline earlier than you formally get hit by any individual else.”
A kind of hits got here early within the third quarter in opposition to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4, forcing Nacua to move to the locker room to get X-rays taken of his left thumb.
He had been rolled up on one of many run performs, he mentioned, and had to verify nothing was damaged. After being given the all-clear, Nacua returned to the sport and caught a 17-yard go on his first drive again.
This is not the primary time this season — and definitely not the primary time in his profession — that Nacua's bodily play has been on show. The third-year receiver is understood for his toughness on the sphere, prepared to get soiled whereas blocking within the run recreation and preventing for further yards after the catch. Not solely can he “get open and catch the soccer,” head coach Sean McVay mentioned, however “what he does after the ball's in his palms is absolutely — it is particular stuff.”
“I feel his play fashion rubs off on everyone on our group, not simply the offense,” quarterback Matthew Stafford mentioned. “I feel our protection seems to be at him like, ‘S—, we'll trip with that man all day.' I do know that is how we really feel on offense.”
That “play fashion” has helped Nacua turn into among the best younger receivers within the league. After a 13-catch, 170-yard efficiency in Week 4, Nacua is now 21 receiving yards away from 3,000 in his profession. With no less than 21 receiving yards on Thursday evening in opposition to the San Francisco 49ers (8:15 p.m. ET, Amazon), Nacua would tie Justin Jefferson for the second-fewest profession video games (33) wanted to succeed in that mark, in response to ESPN Analysis.
“His recreation involves life on Sundays,” Stafford mentioned. “He goes on the market in follow and he is working. …He is making performs and all that, however when it turns into deal with soccer is when Puka Nacua's recreation involves life.”
STAFFORD WITNESSED Nacua's aggressive nature properly earlier than they performed collectively on Sunday. From the receiver's very first offseason coaching program with the Rams, Stafford watched the rookie fifth-round decide in follow and will see how bodily he performed.
“You then put the pads on [during training camp] and also you go, ‘Whoa, it is a bodily soccer participant that occurs to play receiver,'” Stafford mentioned. “I feel early on you can really feel it and spot it, whether or not that was blocking for guys within the run recreation or after the catch on the prime of a route. Nonetheless it confirmed up, it was very evident.”
For Nacua, whose bodily fashion of play was additionally current at BYU, his first coaching camp padded follow was an eye-opener.
“You're feeling the burden of a 280-pound man on the line of scrimmage, you are like, holy cow, the bench press that we're doing undoubtedly did not put together me for that,” Nacua mentioned. “The downhill demeanor and the explosiveness that they've once they're coming downfield after which being like, all proper, buckle your chest and your shoulder pads up a bit of tighter and be sure to received each of them able to go, so you may hit any individual as sq. and as agency as you may.”
It is due to the toll even practices can tackle Nacua that the Rams have tried to guard him so he's wholesome sufficient to be on the market on Sundays.
On the follow area, Rams broad receivers coach Eric Yarber mentioned he, go recreation coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and offensive assistant Rob Calabrese do a drop-step drill “the place you catch the ball and get vertical instantly.”
“And if you try this, it modifications guys' angles to allow them to't get direct hits on you,” Yarber mentioned. “We have correct quarterbacks, so if you happen to're working a stick route or a pivot route they usually put it over your proper shoulder, they're telling you to show immediately from the visitors. In the event that they put it over your left shoulder, it is telling you to show left. So that they're defending you.”
The Rams additionally attempt to loosen up Nacua's reps throughout follow due to what number of he takes throughout a recreation. Nacua has performed 76.72% of the Rams' offensive snaps by 4 video games — and that features time he needed to miss whereas getting stitches within the season opener — and had 42 catches on 50 targets. Nacua's 42 catches and 503 receiving yards lead the league by 4 weeks.
“If we received an eight-play rack, hopefully he will get 4 performs out of that eight,” Yarber mentioned. “And though he needs to be on the market full time, you have to shield him from himself.”
However whereas the Rams wish to shield Nacua the perfect they will, his quarterback understands that “there is a wonderful line of getting each yard you will get, but additionally understanding that if there are alternatives to attempt to shield your self or to go for it.
“It is powerful to show that change off, to be trustworthy with you,” Stafford mentioned. “You are on the market, our nervous programs are going loopy. We're in battle or flight. It is hit or be hit. That is the best way everyone that I do know that is profitable at this recreation performs. It's a must to perceive that is a part of it. I perceive that the particular person sitting on their sofa at dwelling might be like, ‘Man, why do not you simply get down and run out of bounds or do that?' It is like, properly, the final three hours I have been doing it the opposite method and you need to go to that psychological place to type of get there.”
Does Nacua ever attempt to keep away from successful?
“I'd say no,” Nacua mentioned with amusing. “No, it is undoubtedly not one thing that … these are a few of these second ideas, they only by no means make it to the entrance.”
IT WAS EARLY within the first recreation of Nacua's NFL profession that McVay noticed simply how bodily his rookie receiver could possibly be.
In opposition to the Seattle Seahawks to open the season in 2023, the Rams confronted a second-and-17 late within the first quarter. Nacua ran “a bit of 5-yard stick route and he took all of it the best way to the aim line,” Yarber recalled.
“A linebacker hit him, a security hit him, and he broke each tackles and received us all the way down to the [1-]yard line the place we scored after that,” Yarber mentioned.
Added Nacua: “I spun out of it and [was] like, ‘Holy cow, I am nonetheless on my toes.'”
A play “that in all probability ought to have gone 3 or 4 [yards],” Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur mentioned, went for 16 yards as a substitute.
“After that play I mentioned, ‘Man, this dude is one thing totally different,'” Yarber mentioned. “That is in all probability the primary time that you simply noticed his bodily play. After which each recreation after that, [defensive backs] did not wish to hit him. You can see that it was onerous to deal with him, and he was getting extra enthusiastic about blocking and run after catch.”
Nacua mentioned that play made him notice his bodily fashion of play might translate from school to the NFL: “Particularly having the ability to run after the catch and after contact and be like ‘Oh, any individual hit me, I am nonetheless up and I am nonetheless working.'”
That catch was the second of Nacua's NFL profession and an indication of massive issues to return for his rookie season. The 2023 fifth-round decide completed with 105 catches for 1,486 yards, each NFL data for a first-year participant.
IT DIDN'T TAKE lengthy throughout Davante Adams' first time taking part in in a recreation with Nacua for the veteran receiver to see up shut what he had heard about the best way Nacua performs.
Within the Rams' season opener in opposition to the Houston Texans, Nacua wanted stitches above his eye after a collision with Texans linebacker Henry To'oTo'o.
“I felt like half of my face had fallen off into my face masks,” Nacua mentioned.
After he was evaluated for a concussion and received stitched up, Nacua got here again into the sport, catching passes for 19 and 24 yards on that first drive again.
Adams referred to as Nacua “a pit bull” as a result of “it is onerous to cease a pit bull when you get going.”
“That is clearly what you get from any individual like Puka,” Adams mentioned. “He took a number of totally different photographs in that recreation and bounced up, went and received stitches, received patched up and got here again out and stored killing them.
When recounting the hit after the sport, Nacua talked concerning the satisfaction he has in making these powerful performs over the center of the sphere, saying it made him consider all of the occasions he battled within the yard in opposition to his brothers.
“I feel the little brother in me, as a lot as it's to smile in a defender's face if you get again up and also you catch that ball, it is also to my massive brothers, in addition to being like, all these occasions paid off,” Nacua mentioned.
His brother, Samson, “undoubtedly had a method of pushing my buttons probably the most” rising up, Nacua mentioned. Throughout Nacua's rookie season, Samson informed ESPN that each probability he and his older brothers received, they have been utilizing Nacua as a “tackling dummy.”
“We used to demolish this child,” Samson mentioned.
It was the “constant nights of dropping in PIG or HORSE or one-on-one” to his brothers that toughened Nacua up, Nacua mentioned.
“I simply at all times needed to beat him,” Nacua mentioned. “And he by no means let me win. So there was plenty of moments of throwing tantrums, throwing elbows, after which him dunking. We used to play on a shorter rim so we might dunk and there have been plenty of occasions the place I bumped into the again of the pole and he did not care. .. And so [I learned] to maintain getting up as a result of I simply wish to discover a solution to win.”
That mindset has little question proven up since he received to the NFL. After the Texans recreation, McVay received a textual content from a buddy who had seen the play.
“He mentioned, ‘Nacua should combine his oatmeal with cement,'” McVay mentioned. “I assumed that was a reasonably applicable method of simply going into how powerful he's.”
THE RAMS RECEIVERS room has a motto: ‘You may't stay without end, so do not attempt to.'
It is a mindset instilled by Yarber, who needs his receivers to return throughout the center of the sphere with no thought apart from to catch the soccer. “Do not are available there timid,” Yarber mentioned. “If you happen to take the hit, so be it.” It is a line Yarber remembers his receivers coaches used when he performed.
“Generally you need to go throughout the center and make that play,” Adams mentioned. “You may't simply let a ball soar previous your eyes simply since you're in hurt's method. It sounds type of loopy, however that is what you signed up for if you wish to be a receiver on this league.
“You simply need to be fearless in a method and shield your self if you happen to can. You may get your palms on the balls and canopy up as a lot as you may. Generally it may be bang-bang and you will get hit and it is not the prettiest, however that is type of what comes with it.”
Nacua mentioned that mindset units the tone for an offense and “demoralizes the protection for positive.”
“He talks about being the hammer, not the nail,” Yarber mentioned. “And that makes your run after catch that rather more violent. DBs do not wish to hit you, they'll go low they usually lose their method and stuff like that. So if you're bodily — extra bodily than them — they do not wish to deal with you.”
However what makes Nacua so good after the catch?
“I feel the folks that might be finest capable of articulate it could be those making an attempt to deal with him,” McVay mentioned.
