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49ers Have to Find an Answer for Los Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua

No one in the NFL is hotter right now than Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua.

Grant Cohn

Dec 8, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (17) runs the ball against Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Dec 8, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (17) runs the ball against Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) during the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
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No one in the NFL is hotter right now than Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua.

Just this past Sunday against the Bills, he had 12 catches for 162 yards and one touchdown. A couple weeks before that, he had 9 catches for 117 yards against the Eagles' first-ranked defense. So he can produce against the best.

This week, I asked 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen what makes Nacua unique.

“He's a tough football player," Sorensen said. "Some guys are just competitive. He's got size, he doesn't go down easy. Some things you can't measure and he's just got it. He's doing the right things, he’s moving. Like I said, these skill players really fit the scheme really well and I think he understands that. But he’s got good body control, catch radius. He’s got  good athletic skill but marry that with the toughness that he has, he refuses to go down. He's just a good all-around football player.”

The last time the 49ers faced Nacua and Matthew Stafford together, Nacua had 15 catches for 147 yards. This time, the 49ers will have rookie cornerback Renardo Green, who hasn't faced Nacua yet. Maybe Green will be the difference this time around.

Star cornerback Deommodore Lenoir most likely will cover Cooper Kupp most of the day because Kupp lines up in the slot. That means Green and Charvarius Ward will take turns covering Nacua on the outside. The 49ers also have veteran cornerback Isaac Yiadom on the bench if they need him.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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