Puka Nacua has become the NFL's best receiver

Athlon Sports

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00:00Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nakua was already on a historic productivity jag in his first two NFL seasons.

00:06The 2023 fifth-round pick out of BYU ranked sixth all-time among receivers in their first two seasons with 299 targets,

00:13third all-time with 204 receptions, and fourth all-time with 2,798 yards.

00:18His 10 touchdowns didn't quite match up.

00:20Randy Moss ranked first all-time with 33 touchdown catches in his first two seasons, to put that in perspective.

00:25But for a guy who was an afterthought at best in his draft class, Nakua exceeded all other expectations in years 1 and 2.

00:34Seemingly impossibly, Nakua has raised the stakes once again in year 3.

00:38Through the first four games of the 2025 season, Nakua leads the NFL in deep breath,

00:43targets with 50, receptions with 42, receiving yards 503, air yards 323, intended air yards 441,

00:51and only DK Metcalf for the Pittsburgh Steelers, 192, has more yards after the catch among receivers than Nakua's 180.

00:59Since 66 of Metcalf's yards after the catch came on one 80-yard touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in week 4,

01:05we'll see how that evens out over time.

01:07Nakua also leads the league in receiving EPA at plus 36.6,

01:12Amon Ross St. Brown of the Detroit Lions ranked second at plus 29.1, to put that in perspective.

01:17And overall, when you have a catch rate of 84.0% and a yards per reception rate of 12.0,

01:23you are cooking with gas, as Nakua most certainly is.

01:27Given the sheer volume of targets here, it should also be said that Nakua hasn't dropped a single pass all season.

01:32Nakua dropped 13 passes in his rookie campaign and tamped that down to 5 in 2024.

01:37So this is yet another area in which he has drastically improved.

01:41Now, receivers in the Rams' offense are generally debited as situation-transcendent players to a point for two reasons.

01:47First, they unquestionably benefit from Sean McVay's passing concepts,

01:51and they're catching passes from Matthew Stafford, who is among the NFL's best ever when it comes to sheer arm talent.

01:56But 2025 should be the year in which we take the train wheels off that evaluation in Nakua's case

02:01and rightly regard him as one of the league's few true ex-ISO winners,

02:06and right now the best receiver in the game.

02:08Nakua at this moment will be a number one in most NFL offenses regardless of the playbook.

02:14At 6'2 and 205 pounds, Nakua has a size-speed combination every receiver would want,

02:20and it shows up over and over.

02:22Starting with the size element, Nakua has become a top-tier route runner in his ability to create voids in coverage

02:27as opposed to just exploiting them.

02:29It's a powerful difference.

02:31And when you add that to his ability to make the contested catch, it's a big deal of a skill set.

02:35This 31-yard catch against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4 was the best example of that this season so far.

02:42Nakua motioned from the inside slot to outside left, which changed the Colts' coverage concepts.

02:46They had to go from defending a compressed formation into a more wide-open one.

02:50Slot cornerback Mike Hilton now aligned with receiver Jordan Whittington,

02:54and outside cornerback Xavier Howard took Nakua.

02:56This was cover one, man coverage with a single high safety,

03:00and Howard had no immediate help up top it as a result.

03:02The veteran did his level best to keep up with Nakua and negate the play,

03:06but between Stafford's amazing throw and Nakua's knack for getting and staying open in these situations,

03:12that was it.

03:13Nakua's stutter move before going vertical froze Howard for a brief moment,

03:17but as Nakua had to change his leverage from inside to outside downfield,

03:21Howard was able to catch up.

03:22But in the end, it mattered not.

03:25Nakua's gliding speed and route awareness are killers for enemy defenses.

03:28He has become that rare receiver where if you don't cap him up top

03:31with some kind of cornerback safety bracket?

03:34Well, to quote Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, you will lose.

03:38We all know that Nakua was already one of the best system receivers in any system.

03:42In 2025, he officially graduated to the highest status any receiver can enjoy.

03:47He's the guy every defensive coordinator sweats, no matter what.

03:51On Thursday night, it'll be San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Sala's turn to worry about it.

03:56Sala has talked this week about how well McVeigh moves his receivers around for a snap,

04:00and that's the obvious hallmark concept.

04:03But Sala is also smart enough to know that if you're leaving Nakua one-on-one at this point in time,

04:07you are inviting disaster.

04:09If there's a better receiver in the NFL right now than Pooker Nakua,

04:12I'd like to see the list because it's a very short one.

04:14I'd like to see the list because it's a very short one.

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