Puka Nacua debate should be officially settled for more than just Rams fans

Any way you slice it, wide receiver Puka Nacua just had a historic season for the Los Angeles Rams. In 16 games played, he led the league in receptions (129), receiving yards per game (107.2), receptions of 20-plus yards (27), first downs (80), and yards after the catch for a wideout (666). And that was only in the regular season.

Nacua went on to dominate in the playoffs, and he finished with the highest grade in Pro Football Focus' 20-year existence, at 96.1 including the postseason and a 96.3 excluding it. 

PFF isn't gospel, but it offers a far more advanced snapshot of player performance than traditional box-score stats. The platform's latest summary of Nacua's season stirred up plenty of irritation among Seattle Seahawks fans, who believe their own elite receiver, 2025 Offensive Player of the Year Jaxson Smith-Njigba, is the rightful No. 1 player at his position.

Puka's case doesn't depend on subjectivity

JSN's argument over Pacua rests on two primary pillars: his Super Bowl ring with the Seahawks and the OPOY award. So, two pieces of hardware. 

Obviously, those trophies mean something. They mean a lot. You think Nacua wouldn't trade his stats for a championship? 

But grunting in the direction of the trophy shelf is also a shallow way of looking at things. (It's also irresistible to point out that the OPOY trophy on which Seahawks fans base their argument wasn't even spelled correctly at first. It's only half-facetious to ask whether that's really an authoritative piece of evidence.)

Any sports fan should know that awards of any kind, whether MVP, Rookie of the Year, or POY honors, can be heavily affected by narrative appeal. Voters are subjective, and as such, subject to emotional preference. Statistics and metrics are not. 

Props to anyone who points out that all the aforementioned would question the validity of Matthew Stafford's MVP award. It's also true that the numbers made it an objectively obvious, if understandably difficult choice. Runner-up Drake Maye had an outstanding season, but No. 9 was the league's Most Valuable Player whether voters called his name or not.

Anyway, back to Puka and Smith-Njigba. Not only did Nacua out-grade him, he also outplayed him in head-to-head matchups. Take that with a grain of salt, as it's not really a head-to-head matchup given that they play on the same side of the ball.

Also factor in that Seattle's defense was easily superior to the Rams' (it won them a Super Bowl), making Nacua's job a bit harder. The irony of it all is that Nacua beats JSN at his own game, which is to say not only by PFF grades, for those who don't recognize such things, but in plenty of other areas as well.

That prelude out of the way, in three games against Los Angeles last season, the OPOY-to-be amassed 27 catches, 354 receiving yards, and two touchdowns. Nacua recorded 28 catches for 465 yards and three TDs, plus three carries for 22 yards.

Numbers favor Nacua in decisive fashion

That irony extends to the fact that, as indicated in the PFF graphic, including the playoffs Nacua finished with more total receiving yards than Smith-Njigba, the regular-season leader. No, the playoffs don't contribute to award voting - about which, honestly, who cares - but the stakes rise. Postseason production, which affects all the other metrics in the graphic, not just yardage, is more worthy of consideration, not less.

Nacua was the postseason leader in catches, targets, yards, first downs, and TDs (tied with JSN and others). In the regular season, he bested JSN in success rate, 70.5 percent versus 61.3. He maintained that edge in the playoffs. JSN hauled in eight regular-season catches of 40-plus yards to Nacua's three, but then, yards per route run typically indicate explosiveness, too, and Nacua has the edge there when you include the playoffs.

Nacua hauled in a greater percentage of his targets. JSN had him on yards per catch, yards per target, and average depth of target. Not counting his rushing stats, Nacua broke 16 tackles; Smith-Njigba, three. They were both charged with five drops, but Nacua had 19 more targets. 

He accumulated more total EPA and a higher EPA per target. Blue-and-Yellow-tinted glasses or not, what else do NFL fans need to see? 

In the end, it boils down to the cliche that people may lie, but numbers don't. Those who gripe about PFF the most tend to be the ones whose favorite players aren't flattered by its evaluations. The funny thing is, JSN doesn't really have an argument by the other numbers, either. 2026 is a new year, but consider last season's case closed.

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