{"id":16120,"date":"2023-12-22T15:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/16120\/rams-puka-nacua-furthers-oroy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-22T15:20:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:20:04","slug":"rams-puka-nacua-furthers-oroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=16120","title":{"rendered":"Rams&#8217; Puka Nacua furthers OROY case, inches closer to rookie mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rams&#8217; Puka Nacua furthers OROY case, inches closer to rookie mark\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Sarah Barshop, ESPN editor<span class=\"timestamp \">December 22, 2023, 6:52 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>Sarah Barshop covers the Los Angeles Rams for ESPN.  She joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Milwaukee.  She then moved to Houston to cover the Texans.  She came to ESPN after working as a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated.  You can follow her on Twitter @sarahbarshop.<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2013 After Los Angeles Rams rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua was drafted in April, he had simple goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was wondering how would I block well enough to get on the field and if I was going to be a special teams player and how I was going to be able to figure that out,\u201d Nacua said.<\/p>\n<p>He wasn&#39;t focused on his yardage total for the season and &#8220;certainly not&#8221; on how he might be within striking distance of the record for receiving yards by a rookie.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#39;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Rams-Puka-Nacua-furthers-OROY-case-inches-closer-to-rookie.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/1703247603_7_Rams-Puka-Nacua-furthers-OROY-case-inches-closer-to-rookie.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But with nine catches for 164 yards and a touchdown in Thursday night&#39;s 30-22 <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> over the New Orleans Saints, Nacua continued to post numbers that propelled him into the NFL&#39;s offensive rookie conversation. &#39;year, although behind a big favorite in the Houston Texans.  quarterback CJ Stroud.  Nacua needs 147 receiving yards over the Rams&#39; final two games for the most by a rookie in NFL history.<\/p>\n<p>Rams coach Sean McVay said Stroud had a \u201cgreat year\u201d but Nacua \u201cwill get my vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s really special,\u201d McVay said.  &#8220;But the best thing about him is he doesn&#39;t worry about those things. He just cares about being a good teammate, about continuing to improve his game. [I] I love this team.  And he&#39;s one of those guys you really like.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nacua has 96 catches for 1,327 yards and five touchdowns this season, including six games with at least 100 receiving yards.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Stroud completed 62.4% of his passes for 3,631 yards and 20 touchdowns.  His yardage total ranks sixth among all quarterbacks this year, despite playing in just 13 games.  Stroud is currently in the concussion protocol and did not play in <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/week\/\"   title=\"Week\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Week<\/a> 15.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Nacua had his third game with 150 receiving yards, making him the fifth player in NFL history to achieve the feat in a player&#39;s first 15 career games, according to ESPN Stats &#038; Information.  Bill Groman, who holds the rookie record for receiving yards, had four in his first 15 games in 1960.<\/p>\n<p>And despite Nacua&#39;s individual success on Thursday, when asked if he was in contention for OROY, he quickly turned the conversation to what the game meant for the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s cool,\u201d Nacua said.  &#8220;It&#39;s funny when my family sends stuff, but I guess that&#39;s not my main goal. It&#39;s fun to be in every soccer game we&#39;ve played since we were able to come back from the bye. And what coach has been preaching is these games that we play in December where the playoffs have already started for us. So to kind of be in that playoff mindset already has been fun. is definitely something I&#39;m not used to, although &#8220;We&#39;re playing at the end of December, so we&#39;re finding ways to adapt to that.  But it&#39;s been great fun.  &#8220;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rams&#8217; Puka Nacua furthers OROY case, inches closer to rookie mark\u060c Sarah Barshop, ESPN editorDecember 22, 2023, 6:52 a.m. Close Sarah Barshop covers the Los Angeles Rams for ESPN. She joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Milwaukee. She then moved to Houston to cover the Texans. She came to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[994,122,8092,8094,133,5591,8093,8091,4015,1738],"class_list":["post-16120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-case","tag-closer","tag-furthers","tag-inches","tag-mark","tag-nacua","tag-oroy","tag-puka","tag-rams","tag-rookie"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16122,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16120\/revisions\/16122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}