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'Bang-Bang!' Sean McVay Grades Rams Rookie Puka Nacua: 'Huge Fan!'

Wide receiver Puka Nacua has the only Los Angeles Rams touchdown reception of the night in their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Casey Smith

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Los Angeles quarterback Stetson Bennett stole the show in an otherwise uneventful night for the Rams, but what about the guy who caught his touchdown pass?

Wide receiver Puka Nacua has flashed day in and day out in training camp, getting rewarded for his work late in the second quarter. With 1:48 to go in the half, Bennett sat in a comfortable pocket, stepped up and rifled a low strike to Nacua, who caught it in traffic between two Chargers defenders.

"He's a guy that has great, aggressive hands," head coach Sean McVay said after the game. "The touchdown catch, contested play right in the red area, bang-bang. I thought offensive line did a great job of allowing Stetson to be able to hit you in place, maintain the integrity of the pocket and those two did a good job connecting."

The Rams' 2023 fifth-round draft pick from BYU has been a constant staple of praise in practice.

Nacua has taken it upon himself to be like a little chihuahua to Cooper Kupp, following him around at practice and asking one of the best receivers in the game all the questions he can. I say little loosely, though, as Nacua has good size at 6-2, 205 pounds, but you get the analogy.

The Provo, Utah, native brought in 91 passes for 1,430 yards and 11 touchdowns in two seasons at BYU. In his preseason debut, Nacua snagged three of his five targets for 32 yards and the one score.

Kupp is missing time with a hamstring injury while Van Jefferson sat last night after being limited to 11 games in 2022, opening up an opportunity for Nacua to crack the trio of starting receivers.

The Rams' wide receiver depth will be a strength between Kupp, Jefferson, Tyler Johnson who led all receivers with five catches and 70 yards Saturday, Ben Skowronek, Tutu Atwell, Demarcus Robinson, Austin Trammell and Nacua fighting to survive final cuts.

"On the one early third down, he just kind of mistracked it when Brett (Rypien) gave him an opportunity on that fade from the No. 2 spot, but I liked the way he responded," McVay said. "End up making that catch on the slant, did a really good job of running after the catch. You can see he's physical, tough, no fear... he's doing a great job. I'm a huge fan of him."

McVay had one gripe with Nacua's game Saturday.

"The only thing I'll give him a hard time on is his fair catch. I think he had a little bit more space on that one on the punt return," McVay said.

If that's all McVay can choose to complain about, Nacua's in a pretty good position.

You can follow Casey Smith on Twitter @casey_smith2419

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Casey Smith
CASEY SMITH

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