Rams Expect WR Puka Nacua To Play Week 1

Nacua endured the injury during a joint practice with the Cowboys in mid-August. After missing a few weeks of practice, Nacua returned to the field with his teammates this past weekend. McVay commented that Nacua had made good progress. In particular, Nacua’s ability to get closer and closer to full speed has been seen as a really good sign for his likelihood to appear in the season opener this week.

Nacua’s health isn’t the only barrier between the 25-year-old All-Pro and some playing time on Thursday. As Schefter mentions, Nacua “could be facing potential discipline under the NFL’s personal conduct policy for previous off-the-field behavior.” McVay told reporters that Nacua is expected to play in Week 1, but the 10th-year head coach is not involved enough in the current review into Nacua to know if it will affect his playing time to start the season.

Per Mark Maske of Front Office Sports, Nacua’s case “remains under review by the NFL under the personal conduct policy.” He added that, at the moment, a timeline for when a decision that could affect Nacua’s playing time might come remains unclear. McVay will continue to operate under the assumption that his leading receiver of the past three seasons can play until he’s told that Nacua cannot.

With Nacua in the picture, the Rams returns nearly it’s entire starting lineup from last season. That offense assisted in helping veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford win his first MVP award at 37 years old, and his favorite target by far was Nacua. Even with three-time first-team All-Pro Davante Adams in place at WR2, no pass catcher on the Rams had even half of Nacua’s league-leading 129 receptions.

Los Angeles has had difficulty enough getting somebody on the depth chart behind Nacua and Adams to step up into a WR3 role with any consistency. If Nacua was unable to play, Adams would quickly become a go-to outlet for Stafford while the Rams would hope that Jordan Whittington, Konata Mumpfield, Tutu Atwell, Xavier Smith, and rookie sixth-rounder CJ Daniels would be willing and able to carry the slack.

Luckily, the Rams aren’t there quite yet. When they make the trip down under, they expect to have their top receiver, Nacua available to help take on a division rival to open the season.