Wide Receiver · Los Angeles Rams

Puka Nacua

No. 12 · 4th season

Puka Nacua had a hard offseason. he found a way through it.

Some offseasons are just hard. For Puka Nacua, this past one was one of those.

Nacua came into the league as a wide receiver who made everything look a little too easy — a fifth-round pick out of BYU who broke records as a rookie with the Los Angeles Rams and immediately made people wonder where he'd been hiding. The expectations that followed were real, and so was the weight of trying to meet them.

This offseason, Nacua has been open about what it took to get through. He's talked about leaning on accountability and the people around him, and about a specific coping mechanism that helped him find his footing when things got difficult. He didn't pretend the offseason was fine. He said what it actually was.

That kind of honesty has a cost, and it also has a value. For a player still early in what looks like a long career, choosing to say the quiet part out loud tends to matter more than any summer workout clip.

Who he is coming out of this offseason is the question. The growth he's describing is the kind you can't see on a depth chart.

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