LOS ANGELES — With two seam routes Sunday, Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua dissected the Houston Texans’ Cover 3 defense in different ways.
The first, on the final drive of the second quarter, Nacua recognized zone coverage. He allowed tight end Davis Allen to break out, drawing the corner to him as Nacua ran along the inside of the numbers. Only once he was past the defensive back did Nacua turn and look for quarterback Matthew Stafford to deliver the ball for a 24-yard gain.
The second, in the fourth quarter, Nacua was facing man-to-man coverage with Texans safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson lined up across from him, while Houston played zone on the opposite side of the field. A little hesitation step as Nacua approached the safety got Gardner-Johnson to bite, settling down to react to a breaking route. Instead, Nacua zipped past him and caught one of Stafford’s signature no-look passes for a 25-yard gain.
“He’s got great understanding. He’s so smart and he understands the intent of what we’re trying to get done,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “It might have been the same coverage, but the way they played that coverage to his side, the first one was different than the second. He understands it. Those ended up being two huge plays. … He can do a lot of really cool things because when his brain matches up with what he can physically do, it’s a fun thing to see.”
It’s a far cry from when Nacua first arrived in Los Angeles as a fifth-round draft pick in the spring of 2023. Then, he was focused on running “the paper route, exactly how it had a diagonal line and then it straightened back up,” as Nacua recalled Thursday.
But Nacua had his teachers, from McVay to Stafford to former teammate Cooper Kupp to position coach Eric Yarber to offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. He began to get a better understanding for leverages as he sat in on quarterback meetings. Soon, the conversations that Stafford was having with Kupp began to sound more like English to Nacua.
“And then when you get live reps like, man, there are some times when the safety’s getting ready to run downhill and the five-step in-break doesn’t look the same because of where the depth that he plays with,” Nacua explained. “So some of those in-game reps definitely change how you run some of those routes and through experience, practices like today where you mess up a couple plays and you’re like, ‘OK, I know what not to do on Sunday.’”
Even entering his third season, Nacua has continued to seek out knowledge from veteran teammates as he continues his evolution. Kupp is now a Seattle Seahawk, but Nacua presses offseason addition Davante Adams for tips on coming out of his breaks and what Nacua describes as “his illusion of speed and lateral quickness” that he tries to fit to his own skill set.
“If you’re in tune enough and willing to take in that experience and use it to your advantage, then the better off you are,” Stafford said. “How Puka gets open may not look the same as it does to Davante, may not look the same as it does to Tutu [Atwell]. They can all talk to each other and bounce ideas and say, ‘Hey, let me try this. This doesn’t work for me, or it does.’”
Whether or not Nacua makes those adjustments at the line of scrimmage or after the snap depends on the play call, as well as alignment and motions.
LaFleur isn’t sure that ability to react to a coverage that’s being presented can be taught. It can be learned, certainly, through repetition and practice and time in an offense, but much of it is part of Nacua’s intuition.
“He has an incredible feel. He’s a very smart football player but sometimes when the ball is snapped you really see that next-level stuff that’s just kind of uncoachable,” LaFleur said. “He has great spatial awareness, he knows when people are around him at all times. That’s what special athletes do. When he’s running routes, you’ve got the playbook route. He understands the timing, he understands what Matthew’s thinking and they make it come to life.”
Notes
Right guard Kevin Dotson (ankle) was a limited participant in Thursday’s practice. Left guard Steve Avila (ankle) did not participate, instead rehabbing on the sidelines.
Right tackle Rob Havenstein (ankle) was a limited participant.
Allen (knee) was a full participant, while fellow tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) did not practice.