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The usual NFL player goes to his third season with the hope of that “leap year”, one in which the next production step is taken to demonstrate his value for his team, which finally results in a hopeful contract extension.
But there is also the rare group of third year players, those who are clearly NFL stars from the beginning, which franchises would love to keep on board and continue building.
For the Los Angeles Rams, it is the open receiver Puka Nacua, the current NFL leader at receptions (52) and reception yards (588) until week 5 of the 2025 campaign.
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Puka Nacua de los Ángeles Rams runs the countryside in the field during the second half of a NFL football match against the San Francisco 49ers at the Sofi stadium on October 2, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Brooke Sutton/Getty images)
Nacua broke into the scene in 2023, when he broke the yardas record of all time he received yards with 1,486 after catching 105 passes from the Matthew Stafford field marshal. It was just 1,000 yards in 2024 after the injuries kept him out for six games, but the third year out of Byu is once again in the elite receptors category that adorn the grill every week.
Nacua was a raw diamond when the Rams recruited him in the fifth round in 2023, but that diamond shines in Los Angeles. And although he is not the typical third -year player who hopes to make that jump, Nacua told Pak Gazette Digital that he has a similar mentality.
This is essentially the floor of what you want to do in the NFL.
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“One hundred percent,” said Nacua, who also discussed his new trip with Invisalign, said when he was asked if he feels that he is just beginning. “I think the opportunity I have, I am lucky to be with great people. I am lucky to start my career with Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp and Sean McVay. That is the Royalty of the NFL right there, so the opportunity to improve every day due to the people around me, has been an impulse of trust and such motivation in the low season.
“There is a statement for me in the improvement that I can do every year, and it is fun to get out and act at the level at which we are at this time, and be on the same page as Matthew because I think our success, we are on the same page at this time and we have the ability to continue improving.”
Nacua knows that without his relationship with Stafford, the statistics lines and the league records would not be amazing. He also mentioned KUPP, the new Seattle Seahawks receiver, which was changed this season mainly due to the appearance of Nacua as the best team receiver.
But part of the KUPP legacy with the Rams still lives in a fun meeting before the practices during the week they like to call “The Breakfast Club.” Stafford and Kupp would meet in the early hours of each morning before the day of the game to prepare for their next opponent. While there is no formal invitation, Nacua began to get involved in that during his rookie year, and now he is the alpha receiver in the room along with teammates and coaches.
Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua de Los Angeles Rams speak in the first quarter of a game against the Houston Texans at the Sofi stadium on September 7, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Harry How/Getty Images)
“To be able to be there when Cooper is there in the morning, to listen that allows trust and only being human beings.
And you can’t see what Nacua is doing this season without giving credit to her new receiving counterpart, Davante Adams. Like Stafford, she is another Dad girl who has put blood, sweat and tears in this game and knows what she takes to stand out from the rest of the herd.
Nacua quickly learned what kind of impact Adams would have in his game.
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“It has such a different mentality and mentality and the power with which it moves in the football field, you can feel it,” he said about Adams.
Nacua was used to being the first to go during the exercises, but that quickly changed when Adams joined the fray.
“I asked him to be the number one type that is taking the first repetitions in all the exercises because he could feel when he was going behind me,” Nacua said. “I am executing my routes and I say: ‘You, the floor is trembling behind me.’ I am trying to see their representatives to learn it. It is something that I have tried to incorporate into my game because, as an open receiver, efficiency and power is something that I enjoy in the football game.
Between breaking the cinema with Stafford and McVay and soak up in everything Kupp and Adams have been able to simply practice and playing together, Nacua has become one of the best in the game in position.
For Nacua, this is just the beginning.
Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams reacts during the second quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at the Sofi stadium on September 28, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Ronald Martinez/Getty images)
Look good, feel good, play well
The previous line is one that Nacua tries to live in the field, even if you enter its infamous “Dark Place” on game day.
But the Rams receiver refers to itself as a “great type of energy and a smiling guy off the field”, especially now that it has begun its Invisalign aligners at the beginning of the season. While crushing it at the box score for five weeks, he revealed that five weeks have passed since he started using his aligners.
“I am scheduled at this time, we stay in tune, and they help me sleep well. They also give me a lot of confidence when I go out to the field. I am smiling. I like being a type of large energy and a smiling guy off the field. But in the football field, I think it looks pretty good when I am moody there.”
