After amazing rookie seasons, this Rams trio prepares for a sophomore surge

I: WR Puka Nacua

It's mind boggling to put Rams rookie WR Puka Nacua's first NFL season into proper perspective. His performance in 2023 was simply outstanding, as though he set off to climb his first mountain and did so by scaling Mount Everest all by himself in record time. Despite the boasts and proclamations of untested rookies who already have cited shattering Nacua's rookie receiving records as their goal for 2024, it['s not going to happen.

Step one to breaking a record like that is not telling everyone with a camera, a pen, or a hot microphone that you are going to do it. Words fall short. Work works.

Nacua did not arrive to the LA Rams roster boasting and bragging about what he was going to do this season. Rather, he placed all of his focus on becoming a rookie receiver who simply made the 53-man roster. After all, the Rams WR room appeared to be stocked rather well in training camp. The team not only boasted WRs Cooper Kupp, Demarcus Robinson, Tutu Atwell, and Tyler Johnson, but also had veterans Ben Skowronek and Van Jefferson. Nacua, drafted in Round 5 of the 2023 NFL Draft with the 177th overall pick could do the math. He understood that the team would not keep seven wide receivers on the roster.

Since he was the only rookie drafted in 2023, he knew that he had a lot of work to do to catch up. I think that it goes without saying that he did indeed put in the work, and that he overshot his mark of making the roster by a country mile.

Most draft profiles projected Puka Nacua as a late-round prospect, many projecting him to come off the board in Rounds 6 or 7. His vulnerabilities included: Lack of separation, comfortable in traffic, lacking burst speed, too raw as a route runner, and even easily redirected. How could draft scouts and analysts have gotten it so wrong?