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The usual NFL player heads into his third season hoping for that “leap year,” one where that next step of production is taken to prove his worth for his squad, which ultimately results in a hopeful contract extension.
But there’s also the rare group of third-year players – those who are clearly NFL stars from the start – that franchises would love to keep aboard and continue to build around.
For the Los Angeles Rams, it’s wide receiver Puka Nacua, the NFL’s current leader in receptions (52) and receiving yards (588) through Week 5 of the 2025 campaign.
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Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams runs downfield during the second half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium on Oct. 02, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
Nacua burst onto the scene in 2023, when he broke the all-time rookie receiving yards record with 1,486 after catching 105 passes from quarterback Matthew Stafford. He was just shy of 1,000 yards in 2024 after injuries kept him out for six games, but the third-year star out of BYU is once again in the elite category of receivers gracing the gridiron each week.
Nacua was a diamond in the rough when the Rams drafted him in the fifth round in 2023, but that diamond is shining bright in Los Angeles. And though he isn’t the typical third-year player hoping to take that leap, Nacua told Fox News Digital that he does have a similar mindset.
This is essentially the floor of what he wishes to do in the NFL.
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“One-hundred percent,” Nacua, who also discussed his new journey with Invisalign, said when asked if he feels like he’s just getting started. “I just think the opportunity I have, I’m blessed to be around great people. I’m blessed to start my career with Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp and Sean McVay. That’s NFL royalty right there, so the opportunity to get better every single day because of the people around me, it’s been such a confidence boost and such motivation in the offseason.
“There’s a statement to be made for myself in the improvement I can make each year, and it’s fun to be able to go out there and perform at the level we’re at right now, and to be on the same page as Matthew because I think our success – we’re on the same page right now and we have the ability to continue to get better.”
Nacua knows that without his rapport with Stafford, the stat lines and league records wouldn’t be jaw-dropping. He also mentioned Kupp, the new Seattle Seahawks receiver, who was traded this offseason mainly due to the emergence of Nacua as the team’s top receiver.
But part of Kupp’s legacy with the Rams still lives on in a fun meeting before practices during the week they like to call “The Breakfast Club.” Stafford and Kupp would meet in the early hours of each morning before game day to prepare for their next opponent. While there’s no formal invite, Nacua started to get involved in that during his rookie year, and now he’s the alpha receiver in the room alongside teammates and coaches.
Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams talk in the first quarter of a game against the Houston Texans at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 7, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Harry How/Getty Images)
“To be able to be there when Cooper’s there in the morning, to hear the understanding and the communication that went on between those two. Now, the standard that was set before me, I’m in the meetings now and I’m having that conversation with Matthew. It’s been so fun because as much as it is football, I think it is the conversations we have that aren’t about football. He’s a girl dad, he’s got four daughters, and I don’t know what that’s like. But the experience we have and conversations we have, I think it allows for trust and just being human beings. I know he sees the work and everybody on our team sees how he works. So, that gives you such a confidence to be like, ‘All right, I don’t want to let him down because I know the effort that he puts in.’”
And you can’t look at what Nacua’s doing this season without giving credit to his new receiver counterpart, Davante Adams. Like Stafford, he’s another girl dad who has put in blood, sweat and tears into this game and knows what it takes to stand out from the rest of the pack.
Nacua learned quickly what type of impact Adams would have on his game.
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“He’s got such a different mindset and mentality and the power that he moves with on the football field, you can feel it,” he said of Adams.
Nacua was used to being the first one to go during drills, but that quickly changed when Adams joined the fray.
“I asked him to be the number one guy who’s taking the first reps in all the drills because I could feel when he was going behind me,” Nacua said, laughing. “I’m running my routes and I’m like, ‘You, the ground is shaking behind me.’ I’m trying to watch his reps so I can learn. You watch him move and I was like, ‘I can feel the power, the urgency that he moves with on the football field.’ It’s something I’ve tried to incorporate in my game because, as a wide receiver, efficiency and power is something that I enjoy in the game of football. To be able to watch that, I knew I needed to add that into my game as well.”
Between breaking down film with Stafford and McVay and soaking in all that Kupp and Adams have been able to teach him simply by practicing and playing together, Nacua has developed into one of the game’s best at his position.
For Nacua, this is only just the start.
Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams reacts during the second quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 28, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
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LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PLAY GOOD
The line above is one that Nacua tries to live by on the field, even if he does enter his infamous “dark place” on game day.
But the Rams receiver refers to himself as a “big energy guy and a smiley guy off the field,” especially now that he has begun his Invisalign aligners at the start of the season. As he’s crushing it in the box score through five weeks, he revealed it’s been five weeks since he began wearing his aligners.
“I’m on schedule right now, we’re staying in tune, and they help me sleep good. They also give me so much confidence when I go out there on the field. I’m smiling. I like to be a big energy guy and a smiley guy off the field. But on the football field, I think it looks pretty good when I’m mean-mugging out there.”
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