Puka Nacua Has Made the Leap

[@TheCountofToulouse]

Puka didn't 'come out of nowhere', the Rams, as proven in pre draft footage, knew what they were looking at. The ringer comes when he shows up at training camp and becomes Cooper Kupp's shadow, picking his mind daily and forming chemistry with Matthew Stafford. The Rams have knack for seeing what others don't but when you have a dart throwing ace like Stafford feeding you, you're gonna do things like BREAK every rookie WR record and have a fast tracked career, doing things that, in fact, no one has EVER done. Many WR's that played with Stafford had their BEST statistical years while catching passes from him. That being said, Puka is for real, though, big, fast game speed and smart.

[@josephtaylor6069]

Yes I totally agree and the Rams predraft scouters are the real story of this team

[@johningle1]

He's unstoppable. Every game he makes a highlight catch. Every. single. game. Jamarr Chase and Justin Jefferson might be faster and better deep threats, but sideline to sideline, diving catches, and bull rushing defenders, Puka is unmatched. Possibly ever. He's a different beast never seen before. Maybe Anquon Boldin as far as power, but that's just one facet of Puka.

[@bryank8043]

Drafting puka and kyren last year in rounds 23 & 25 in a startup made up for every prior poor decision in my life

[@LeeBrown-zi4bh]

He is an elite receiver.

[@coryyoung4406]

Puka(zoid) 😂 is different he blocks and route running is crazy and makes crucial catches and it's his 2nd year! He is a problem for defenses!

[@aizentaicho82]

I love the point about McVay. Maybe other coaches should study what he is doing and replicate it. Its impossibe for everyone to get a JJ, but maybe everyone can get this production out of a Puka Nacua style receiver if they have one on their roster.

[@CCbat33]

No. It’s not “the scheme’s” or whatever you guys keep bringing up to discredit lower drafted Rams players. It’s Puka, it’s Kupp. They’re elite, they slipped in the draft, scouts missed. That’s it. McVay is not making those crazy catches on the sideline Puka’s doing, “the scheme” is not breaking a billion tackles like Puka is doing. It’s Puka, you can’t get a “Puka type of player” anywhere.

[@aizentaicho82]

@@CCbat33 I'm not saying it's just schemes. I'm saying there are a lot of players who aren't particularly fast, who can probably break a lot of tackles if used correctly. I'm saying look at all that McVay does, including getting those players ready and figuring out what they can do. Then accommodating it to the point that it breaks the league. McVay and Shanahan are very close. There is a reason many call Puka McVays Deebo. They think McVay saw what Shanahan had with Deebo all these years and decided to one up him with Puka. Of course the coach can't make him do all those things, but he can't put him in the position to make those things happen. Puka isn't drawing up his own route tree and telling McVay what he wants to run. McVay is making those calls.

[@josephtaylor6069]

Yes but they take our coordinator’s every year and make them head coaches or send them to other teams making our offensive scheme well known to everyone

[@aizentaicho82]

@@josephtaylor6069 I see what you are saying. I was talking more about the fact that there are probably tons of receivers who don't get to play because they aren't a classic receiver like JJ. If coaches used them like Puka, they might find that there are some hidden gems. I'm definitely not a fan of how often our staff gets poached lol. It does show how amazing McVay is though. Despite losing so many coaches, he constantly has the team winning. Still only 1 losing season in 7 years. And the offense continues to be pretty good when healthy, despite everyone knowing it.

[@abtrtomr]

1st or 2nd rounder if the league knew then what they know now. QB and coach matters too tho. Helps Puka that he has Stafford and Sean McVay and Cooper Kupp to mentor him.

[@reviews.de.aparelhos]

Puka makes catches that NOBODY can make !

[@NMxCrazySkills]

Love your work Matt. I trust you the most of anyone when it comes to WRs! Puka or Chase will be my 1.01 for bestball next year. I have it Chase Puka Nico JJ JJ just doesn’t catch enough tds sadly… And I’ll be all in on AJ Brown in the 2nd round expecting some regression from run game or D and know others won’t be as into him.

[@chillchannel2399]

Matt, I respect what you do (James, I haven’t heard you much yet). And I know enough about you to know that this is partially click bait (and that’s ok). I KNOW you already know that Puka is one of the top 5 receivers in the league. I’d be ok taking Chase over him and Jefferson, but Jefferson only because he has name recognition and I can trade him for just about anything. Good video gentlemen! Thanks.

[@fred-s7e]

One flaw he does have is he isn’t that great of a red zone threat or at least what you would expect. He looks like he is still injured and playing through it

[@andrewcortez3353]

Idk how we can definitely say Jefferson is better when Puka has had a better start to his career… Not saying Puka better but it’s def close

[@wardog211]

Puka more impactful than JJ is crazy. Nobody doubles or triples or shades their whole coverage to Puka. That’s what JJ deals with every game

[@aizentaicho82]

I think they are speaking more to the fact that he is just as impactful in the run game as the pass game. He's like a mixture of JJ and Deebo. He catches everything, is hard to bring down and blows people up in run plays. I don't think they are saying he is better than JJ as a receiver. Just more impactful, there are more ways to use him in offense. I would never want to line up JJ as a full back, but the Rams can do that because the defense never quite knows if he is blocking or blocking and then releasing into a deep route. Whereas if it were JJ they'd think there's no way he is blocking.

[@wardog211]

@ that’s not a great argument. JJ lines up everywhere for the Vikings. They put him all over the place. And where he lines up dictates the coverage for the defense. He’s used to pull guys away to get other people open and to confuse defenses. There was a play in the Falcons game where AJT is playing man on JJ and the other guys are playing zone, JJ motions inside of Addison, the nickel corner stays in his zone looking at JJ while AJ is also locked in on JJ too and Addison gets wide open for the TD. Another Addison bomb happened in that game because in single high coverage Jessie Bates was shaded to JJ every play so JJ runs a crosser that pulls Bates up the field and gets Addison a 1 on 1 opportunity. And then another where both Addison and JJ run go routes and Bates looks towards JJ first and doesn’t have time to recover when Darnold throws it the other way to Addison. And even in the Bears game recently JJ lined up in the backfield multiple times and was used as a RAC threat. While he’s not as strong as Puka as a blocker he’s still a willing blocker. I like Puka and he’s a great receiver but he doesn’t impact defense to nearly the same level, nor is he close to the level of route runner JJ is. Puka is getting a lot of 1 on 1 type of situations bc Kupp is still a threat. The Rams are also manufacturing him touches to get the ball rolling. The Vikings do this with JJ to a lesser extent. For example, 5 of Puka’s 12 catches in the Bills game came behind the LOS. JJ might have 1 or 2 of those a game. He also has a better QB to get him the ball, not that Darnold doesn’t flash high level ball placement. JJ is mostly targeted on down the field throws because that’s what the Vikings offense is designed on. And JJ leads the league in explosive catches 20+ yards down the field, and leads the league in reception rate on throws 25+ yards down the field. So you can talk about YAC but he’s not getting all these manufactured short yardage YAC opportunities as most of it is coming through the air. JJ also leads the league in yardage generated from DPI’s I think. So there’s some receiving yards meat left on the bone as guys would rather tackle JJ before the ball gets there than let him have a big catch. TL;DR I’m just trying to say just because JJ isn’t having these 150+ yard games doesn’t mean he hasn’t been as impactful or is somehow worse. To talk about how good Puka has been there’s no reason to try to compare him to other receivers specifically. Just say he’s on his way/is already there to being a tier 1 type receiver.

[@aizentaicho82]

@@wardog211 that's not a great argument because no one is arguing he is as good a receiver as JJ. They said multiple times in this video that JJ is a better receiver for many of the reasons you just listed. They are arguing impact because of ways Puka can be used in the run game as well as the pass game. JJ dictates a lot more pass coverages than Puka, no doubt about it. That doesn't mean Puka doesn't get doubled or impact pass coverage, because he most certainly does both. However just as Puka doesn't impact pass coverages as much as JJ. JJ doesn't impact run defenses as much as Puka, which in turn impacts pass coverage due to play action. JJ doesn't impact run fits anywhere near as much as Puka. People aren't worried about JJ blocking them in the run game, but they constantly overreact to Pukas presence in any run plays that come in their direction or look like they are coming in their direction. As I'm sure you know, McVay loves to make his runs look like passes and his passes look like runs. And Pukas ability to catch everything, RAC and put them on their butts when blocking, keeps them focused on him because they know how hard he is to bring down. As you noted, people aren't worried about JJ taking the ball on WR sweeps. Not that he can't do that, the Vikings might actually want to do that more, because that does affect the defense big time. However, just as you outlined plays that came open because of JJ's presence. There are a ton of plays that came open because of Puka's presence. Primarily his YAC. The defense is so concerned with making sure they have enough people to get him on the ground, they often overlook others. For example on the 3rd and 4 in the 49er game that ended the game, they were so worried about him taking the ball in a sweep that the entire LB core and secondary shifted to cover him when he motioned and completely forgot about the TE who was left wide open for the 3rd down conversion that ended the game. Another example is how they cover him due to his ability to RAC and block. Often you will see them unsure if they should line up right in front of him, because they are afraid if it's a run, it will be that much easier for him to block them. But if they play off him, when they come up to tackle, there is a good chance they won't be able to get him on the ground before he picks up another 10 yards. And there's a million more examples just like that, whether it was pass or run. They have to equally worry about him in pass as well as the run. Whereas the concern for JJ is 90% pass coverage. TLDR, they aren't saying Puka is as good a receiver as JJ. They are saying he is a pretty good receiver who gets a lot of YAC, who is also a huge threat to get the ball out of the backfield and block. And as he is such a threat for both the pass and the run, being a consistent threat in both has a larger impact than being a huge threat in one. The two are just used in very different ways. If we are talking just the impact in pass coverage, JJ wins it hands down, but they are talking overall impact, which includes run plays as well. And Puka does a very good job affecting the defense in both.

[@danstvguy]

​@@wardog211Too long.

[@TheAmadiShow]

Not yet

[@aizentaicho82]

Not tier 1 yet. Only because he missed half the season. And thats not really fair to the other receivers.

[@iroh6558]

With football content nowadays, I can’t tell between actual football analysis or fantasy content. It’s clear Jefferson is the best receiver in the NFL.

[@zac6499]

Chase has been better than him in both fantasy and real life this year. It's like you completely ignored everything they said.

[@iroh6558]

@ Vikings are also 24th in passing attempts. Bengals are 3rd in passing attempts. Jefferson has more yards per route run and yards per team pass attempt

[@thomasrichards9885]

​@iroh6558 you didnt even watch to 3:30

[@hv3484]

@@zac6499Jefferson is far above anyone.

[@YodaXIII]

@@iroh6558 that's kinda the point tho, they were arguing most impact, not best receiver. jamarr is the most impactful receiver on any team as he leads in tds yds and recs, while vikings can win without jjeff going crazy. who is more talented will always be a subjective thing

[@Rikkcas]

bs. He's still technically rookie. Very good currently.. obviously,... when uninjured. But they will definitely figure him out eventually. All players have tendencies and the computer breakdowns will detail them. Going forward, time will tell... as it always has since the 60's. The key is 'if he stays healthy'. 'Right now' is the key point of this discussion. Later isn't now ... mainly because it's the NFL. Not For Long is a proven reality. Watch.