Puka Nacua is one of the most accomplished young wide receivers in the NFL, just two years removed from setting a rookie record with nearly 1,500 yards for the Los Angeles Rams. Still, the All-Pro didn’t even crack the top 10 among 2025’s top wideouts in ESPN’s annual poll of NFL personnel. The participating coaches, executives and scouts instead tabbed him an “honorable mention” behind the likes of Malik Nabers and Nico Collins, neither of whom have yet to match Nacua’s peak production.
How is this possible? Nacua, after all, was a top-five receiver in terms of yardage (1,486) as a rookie, and he ranks seventh in NFL history (!) with 2,476 receiving yards through his first two seasons, directly behind Jerry Rice and well ahead of greats like Larry Fitzgerald and Torry Holt. He also ranks seventh among all-time receivers in combined catches (184) through two years, ahead of former stars like A.J. Green and Anquan Boldin. We’re talking about a historic resume here.
So what, exactly, is the issue? How could anyone vote Nacua outside of the top 10 going into 2025?
We can pinpoint a few potential reasons, roughly in this order:
- Perceived lack of big-play upside
- Durability concerns
- Draft reputation
The first is almost certainly the primary culprit. On the surface, Nacua’s numbers don’t suggest a plodding possession receiver; he averaged more than 14 yards per catch in his monster debut as Matthew Stafford’s top target. But there’s also little denying Nacua’s made a name for himself in Los Angeles functioning more as a safety valve than a field stretcher. The advanced metrics back this up: Besides dipping to 12.5 yards per catch in 2024, he ranked behind every other wideout on ESPN’s top-10 list in air yards per target (7.7). He also ranked ninth among ESPN’s listed wideouts in deep-target rate (5.7%), or targets at least 20 yards downfield.
‘Explosive’ factors of top WRs
Note: Advanced statistics are from the 2024 season, courtesy of NFL Pro.
In other words, Nacua is almost exclusively deployed for — and excels at — the “dirty work,” leaning on intermediate routes in the middle of the field to corral Stafford passes at a high rate. That’s not a bad thing, by the way. But in today’s NFL, “splash” is cash, and teams are quicker to pay for unteachable athleticism (and the home runs that typically follow). So while Nacua may be Mr. Reliable for the Rams, and while his skill set might seamlessly translate across the NFL as a go-to outlet, many reasonably perceive him as more of a high-volume rather than highly explosive weapon, even if that notion undersells his elite physicality.
Does that fully account for Nacua’s ranking? How, for example, can Amon-Ra St. Brown get away with feasting on mostly short-area targets after the Detroit Lions standout posted just a 3.5% deep-target rate in 2024? Well, we’re a bit in the weeds now, but St. Brown’s track record is richer and longer — he’s posted three straight 1,000-yard seasons and matched or exceeded Nacua’s touchdown total in three different seasons. Besides all the numbers, however, there’s also the durability factor.
Not every wideout on ESPN’s list is a pillar of perfect health. Hill fought through bumps in 2024. Collins missed literally a quarter of the season. Nacua, however, wasn’t just limited to 12 games in his second NFL season due to a knee sprain; he also battled knee issues last offseason, and his distinct style of play — lots of snaps and targets, right in the thick of the field, with a punishing approach to contact — suggests injury risks are likely to remain throughout his career.
2025 NFL ‘Triplets’ rankings: Bengals reclaim top spot, Chiefs fall from league’s elite in QB-RB-WR/TE list
Jared Dubin
Lastly, there is the reputation that lingers from Nacua’s entry to the NFL. This may not have been the driving force of execs’ voting, but the reality is that of the 10 top-ranked wideouts in the poll, eight were drafted in the first three rounds, and one of the exceptions — Tyreek Hill — slid to the fifth round in large part due to off-field concerns. Nacua was a fifth-round flyer. He wasn’t supposed to be an elite wideout. And pre-draft scouting reports underlined this, emphasizing the ongoing perception that Nacua simply isn’t the game-breaking athlete that other wide receivers are (or could be); NFL Media’s own report on Nacua projected he would not bring the “long speed” necessary for deep action, suggesting he lacked “instant acceleration to separate.”
Nacua, of course, has since more than justified the Rams’ late-round investment. He’s still growing, and he’s already among the NFL’s most trusted targets through the air. But if the latest ESPN poll is any indication, he’ll need to both stay healthy and prove a touch more splashy to creep into the “best of the best” conversation. In the meantime, we’d bet Stafford and Sean McVay and the rest of the Rams are just fine with what he brings to the table.
Go to Source
Author: Cody Benjamin
July 16, 2025 | 2:15 pm
