Inside The Huskies

Nacua Becomes Second Former UW Player Taken in NFL Draft

The wide receiver played the 2019 and 2020 seasons for the Huskies.

Dan Raley

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Puka Nacua became the second former University of Washington football player selected in the NFL draft, going to the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday with the final pick of the fifth round — and before any Huskies went off the board.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound wide receiver from Orem, Utah, played the 2019 and 2020 seasons for the UW before returning to home and finishing up with two seasons at BYU.

Nacua was the 177th player drafted overall, going  50 picks after former Husky quarterback Jake Haener, from Fresno State, was picked up in the fourth round by the New Orleans Saints.

Haener and Nacua were in Husky fall camp together in 2019. 

At the height of the pandemic, Nacua chose to leave the UW after catching 16 passes for 319 yards and 3 touchdowns, which included a 65-yard scoring strike from Dylan Morris in a 44-27 victory over Arizona at Husky Stadium.

At the time, Nacua said he simply wanted to go home and play his college football alongside his brother Samson, another wide receiver who transferred from Utah to BYU. 

in his two seasons with the Cougars, Nacua caught 91 passes for 1,430 yards and 11 scores. He had a sensational game this past fall against Boise State, grabbing 14 balls for 157 yards and 2 TDs.

While he departed the UW, Nacua wasn't done with the Pac-12, later playing games against USC, Washington State, Utah, Arizona State and Stanford.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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