8 enticing adventures emerging after 1 week of LA Rams 2024 Training Camp

VIII: Rams WRs will remind NFL why they hold All-Time records

When LA Rams WR Cooper Kupp played 17 games, he caught 145 passes for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. But did you realize that he did not play in the fourth quarter of two games that season? In 2021, he failed to claim the NFL All-Time Single Season Receiving Yards Record set by Detroit Lions WR Calvin Johnson in 2012 at 1,964 yards.

Just 18 yards more, and Kupp would be number one in the record books. He could have done that in just one play.

The Rams ensured that rookie WR Puka Nacua did set the NFL All-Time Rookie Receiving Yards Record in 2023, despite the San Francisco 49ers starting defense's attempt to shut him down in Week 18. Nacua caught 105 passes for 1,486 yards and six touchdowns.

Two receivers who, if they remain healthy, could combine for nearly 3,500 receiving yards and 25+ touchdowns in a single season. So why are so many NFL analysts turning towards other less accomplished receiving tandems? Simply because they know that when the season starts, the headlines will feature these Rams receivers often enough.

The wildcard variable to all NFL single season receiving records comes down to the quarterback. And like it or not, it's no mere chance that the quarterback who set the single season record with Calvin Johnson, who threatened that record with Cooper Kupp, and who set the rookie record with Puka Nacua is always veteran QB Matthew Stafford.

How can it possibly be that BYU rookie receiver Puka Nacua was passed over 176 times in the 2023 NFL Draft by teams with refined data analytics, scouting departments, and an ocean of data to swim through, and still missed the fact that he would be the best rookie receiver in 2023?

Perhaps because all other 31 teams understood that they did not boast prime-time Stafford under center.

And Matthew Stafford is already in mid-season form in 2024.