LOS ANGELES — Puka Nacua was at his Los Angeles Rams teammate’s wedding when he got the call.
Nacua was on the dance floor celebrating defensive end Kobie Turner, when his phone lit up.
“A lot of phone calls you decline at that moment,” Nacua told Yahoo Sports, but I’m like, ‘Coach Sean McVay? Hello, hello.’”
McVay asked Nacua: “What do you think about Davante?”
From the dance floor of Turner’s wedding in March, Nacua celebrated the Rams signing three-time All-Pro receiver Davante Adams.
On one hand, Adams is just the latest in a deep pool of high-caliber talent who have guided Nacua since the Rams selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
“I feel like a little kid in a candy store with Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford, Davante Adams,” Nacua said.
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On the other hand: Adams brings to the Rams receiver room a perspective that Kupp did not. Kupp’s eight strong NFL seasons all came with the Rams (until the Seahawks signed him this spring) and all came under McVay’s offense.
Adams arrives with a pro résumé spanning a range of play-callers across eight Green Bay Packers seasons, two-plus years with the Las Vegas Raiders and the better part of last season with the New York Jets.
Rams leadership liked the idea of bringing those perspectives into their building.
“A lot of people in our ecosystem have been here, so I always think it’s beneficial when someone comes,” general manager Les Snead told Yahoo Sports. “My abstract artist mind [thinks] it’s probably some version of organic diversification coming into the room that you get someone who’s been other places, seen other things things, done it in different ways — but they’re still at the top of the game.
“That’s a benefit.”
Adams arrives coming off his sixth career season over 1,000 yards, surpassing the mark in 2024 despite an in-season trade from the Raiders to the Jets.
In 11 years, Adams has caught 957 passes for 11,844 yards and 103 touchdowns. He’s averaged 1,228 yards and 11 touchdowns per 17-game season (he entered the league before it bumped to 17 from 16) and twice led the league in receiving touchdowns.
Nacua watches wide-eyed as Adams shows him new nuances to routes and how to better capitalize on his leverage.
Adams and Nacua both pride themselves on running across the middle of the field fearlessly, but Nacua said Adams has reminded him that just because he can take contact doesn’t mean he needs to or even necessarily should.
Adams has shown him different route stems to elevate his game.
“I always take the contact and say that I’m bigger than somebody,” Nacua said. “We get to the break point, I’ll shrug you off and be able to run and get the ball. But it definitely does save some shoulder pain when you can win from negative leverage and not run into people all the time.”
Nacua is considering whether his defender is playing with a high shoulder or low, and what that depth means for the receiver’s best angle.
Adams’ red-zone releases have left Nacua saying: “Holy cow, that’s teach tape right there.”
“How he tries to marry up his slant with the fade,” Nacua said. “We don’t run a ton of stuff outside the numbers because of how condensed our offense is, but trying to figure out, on my slant release [how] he’s heading up to inside leverage and to threaten outside. I would take the slant as kind of a speed release for the fade ball and then being able to work kind of a false acceleration into the slant.
“Using that for both reps and trying to win and make them marry up.”
In recent weeks, that Rams work has come with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as Stafford rehabilitates an aggravated disc in his back.
McVay echoed multiple Rams sources Thursday in saying that Stafford would have played in recent weeks if it were the regular season even as he remains sidelined in training camp.
Stafford missed the Rams’ joint practice this week with the Cowboys and will not participate in the Rams-Chargers joint practice next week.
But if a Saturday workout goes well, McVay said, Stafford will return to Rams-only practice Monday.
Nacua said he’s “very confident” in Stafford’s ability to reintegrate quickly, the quarterback continuing to discuss offensive tweaks with his receivers while unable to practice. Stafford’s watching Adams “adding tools to everybody’s skill set,” Nacua said, and assessing what each means for their ability to fight through contact, keep running and get in and out of breaks.
“There’s a mastery that he has of the football field and especially of our offense,” Nacua said of Stafford. “His standard for himself always makes it super easy to be out here because he wants to put it on the right shoulder, the front palm, on every cut. Every route he knows exactly where is the best spot to put the ball against, whether it’s based on the defense or how one receiver might catch it differently from another.”
Stafford’s mastery helped Nacua to 2,476 yards and nine touchdowns in two regular seasons despite missing six games last year. Adding Adams to the mix after Kupp, Nacua thinks, will only unlock another level of potential.
“I’ve learned, I feel like, at an accelerated rate because of them,” Nacua said. “It’s like a dream come true.”
