making the kinds of headlines<\/a> the organization surely does not prefer over the last few months.<\/p>\nAt the annual league meeting on Monday, Rams head coach Sean McVay said that the team has been aware of Nacua\u2019s situation since the incident happened on New Year\u2019s Eve. While the club is continuing to let the process play out, McVay again expressed his confidence in Nacua as a player and a person.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys know, I trust this kid\u2019s heart,\u201d McVay said. \u201cLove him, put your arm around him, want to continue to help him grow. And, really, get all the appropriate facts before I rush to judgment on that particular situation. But I will say, knowing this guy for three years, is I do trust his heart. I trust the human being. And I want to be able to put my arm around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, is there concern within the organization about Nacua, given that the club is likely about to pay him a lot of money?<\/p>\n
McVay said the team has had \u201cconversations\u201d surrounding that.<\/p>\n
\u201cPuka would be the first to tell you, he and I have a close relationship. We communicate clear, open, and honest,\u201d McVay said. \u201cThe play on the field is amazing, and with what the play has dictated and determined, there\u2019s a responsibility in terms of representing all things \u2014 not exclusive to just that. He knows that. Those are the expectations. And we\u2019re hopeful that will be something that, this is an opportunity for him to learn and grow, and we are hopeful that he\u2019s a Ram for a really long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he understands what the responsibility is, not exclusive to just the production on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
While McVay acknowledged that a lot was thrown at Nacua quickly when it comes to being a pro, the head coach added, \u201cI also think he\u2019s built to be able to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that in a lot of instances, when you have the right heart, when you have people like his mom, his brothers, his coaches, his teammates \u2014 you\u2019ve got a lot of people who love him and want to be able to help him continue to grow,\u201d McVay said. \u201cAnd, shoot, I had the same thing. I think about a lot of instances, even in this role, you\u2019re growing up in the midst of it, becoming a man. And that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re witnessing with him. And I want to help him become the best human being he can possibly be, because I do believe better people make better Rams. And I trust this kid\u2019s heart, like I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether or not Nacua continues to earn that trust is to be determined. But, as McVay said, Nacua\u2019s performance means that he\u2019s earned a raise. Despite playing 16 games in 2025, he led the NFL with 129 receptions. His catches also led to a league-leading 80 first downs, and he was No. 1 with 107.2 receiving yards per game, finishing with 1,715 yards with 10 TDs.<\/p>\n
Nacua is headed into the last year of his four-year rookie contract, and is currently set to make $5.77 million in base salary. In his first three seasons, Nacua has caught 313 passes for 4,191 yards with 19 touchdowns in 44 career games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a fifth-round pick in the 2023 draft, receiver Puka Nacua is in line for a significant and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-554717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}