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Sarah Barshop
LOS ANGELES — Puka Nacua remembers the first time he heard Cooper Kupp’s voice.
It was during the Los Angeles Rams’ organized team activities in 2023, not long after Nacua was drafted in the fifth round. Kupp, entering his seventh NFL season, was participating in meetings virtually as he awaited the birth of his third son.
But even over video call, Nacua quickly realized how valuable it would be to get to learn from the veteran receiver.
That moment was memorable, Nacua said, because after hearing Kupp speak, he quickly realized he had a mentor in the Rams wide receivers room.
«I heard the voice of Cooper Kupp before I ever saw the person of Cooper Kupp,» Nacua said. «I was like, I feel like this is our other coach. I just don’t know what he looks like.»
When Kupp left the Rams over the offseason, the unofficial role of Nacua’s mentor became available.
Enter Davante Adams, whose knowledge «is something different from what we’re used to, having somebody like ‘Coop’ in the system for a long time,» Nacua said in June. During OTAs last spring, Nacua asked Adams to lead drills because he wanted to make sure he could watch Adams himself. It wasn’t just about respect, Nacua said. It was about the young receiver genuinely wanting to learn.
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Through his time with both veteran receivers, Nacua’s game has matured thanks to learning «two different mentalities of attacking greatness.» During his rookie season, Nacua focused on soaking up as much game knowledge as he could from Kupp, following the advice of Rams receivers coach Eric Yarber to «hold on to Cooper’s coattail» and «do whatever he says.»
That crash course from Kupp paid off immediately, as Nacua finished his first NFL season by setting the rookie record with 105 catches for 1,486 yards.
This offseason, the Rams made a big change in their receivers room, releasing Kupp after nine seasons and signing Adams. But Nacua adjusted to the changes and still found ways to take previous learnings from Kupp and ask necessary questions of Adams to evolve his game. From pushing each other, to enhanced nutrition to route running and catching the ball, Nacua has experienced how the veteran wideouts play the game, and he’s all the better for it. And the mentee will be with his mentors on Sunday when Nacua and Adams face off against Kupp’s Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game (6:30 p.m. ET, Fox).
«I think [Nacua’s] been really fortunate to be around two great players that were willing to share,» Rams head coach Sean McVay said of the influence Kupp and Adams have had on Nacua. «It’s one thing to be around somebody, it’s another thing to be able to have that willingness and that ability to have high-level communication. They have a big-picture understanding, not exclusively through the lens of a receiver. And [Nacua’s] willing to listen.
«… To his credit, he’s taken that. He’s got the right kind of humility and the right kind of curiosity, and I think those are usually recipes for success.»
Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, Kupp texted Nacua to invite him to his weekday workouts.
And so began their offseason routine. Nacua was at Kupp’s house at 6 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and at noon on Tuesday and Thursday to workout with the veteran receiver.
«I remember the first week I came back, I think I threw up every day of the week,» Nacua said last offseason. «And he wasn’t a fan of that. It was on his lawn and stuff. It’s not like we’re here at the facility, it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re throwing up in my bushes, Puka. Thanks.’ But it was super fun.»
Added Kupp in 2024: «We were focused on just pushing each other, trying to get better. He’s willing to work. He knows that one of the hardest things is to have success early and then be able to continue to push and say there’s more out there. He’s done a great job of that and put the right foot forward to be able to set himself up to be able to go do something pretty special this year.»
That offseason — fueled by witnessing how Kupp works on his body during the break between seasons — Nacua rebuilt his body. He then focused on nutrition, cutting back on fried and inflammatory foods he often ate his rookie year. During his rookie season, he’d drive home from the team facility and stop at fast food restaurants he’d see — Burger King, Jack in the Box or his favorite, McDonald’s.
In his second season, Nacua played in just 11 games after injuring his knee during training camp and then aggravating the injury in Week 1. He returned in Week 8 and finished the regular season with 79 catches for 990 yards and three receiving touchdowns.
The Rams’ season ended in the snow in Philadelphia in the divisional round of the playoffs, with Nacua catching six passes for 97 yards and Kupp five for 61 yards.
Less than two months later, the Rams had retooled their receiver room, releasing Kupp and signing Adams.
«It wasn’t necessarily like a Cooper for Davante,» McVay said. «It was another great player where you felt like you could acquire two No. 1s with the emergence and the ascension of Puka and then what Davante’s done and being able to play that ‘X’ receiver and some of the things that we would ask.
«Guys like that usually don’t become free agents. They don’t hit free agency. We wanted to be aggressive in our pursuit to be able to add talent to our roster.»
Arizona Cardinals in Week 14, Nacua separated from cornerback Will Johnson before making a leaping catch down the sideline.
There have been times this season when Nacua said he has gotten to the top of the route with «the footwork that was required, I felt like Davante Adams out there.»
«The routes that we’ve run in our offense and then adding a new different touch to it, it feels nice,» Nacua said. «It’s like learning a new dance.»
While Nacua is learning from Adams on the field, the interactions in the meeting rooms are what stand out to Yarber. When the Rams receivers are watching film, Nacua will ask Adams what he saw or what he was trying to get out of the route. And then, Nacua will ask Adams to critique his routes.
«How did you think I did on that?» Yarber said of Nacua’s questions. «Should I have gone harder inside?'»
«And one thing about Puka, he’ll go out there and try to execute it,» Yarber said. «He’s not afraid to fail.»
And while McVay gave credit to Nacua for the work he continues to put in, he also said the young receiver has clearly taken advantage of playing and being around Adams.
«He’s really leaned into Davante [Adams],» McVay said. «I think Davante’s helped him continue to take his game to another level,
Adams called getting to come to Los Angeles «and have somebody like [Nacua] to work with» a «dream situation.»
Adams said the respect he can tell Nacua has for him, «is flattering, but it also makes me just want to pour more into him and the rest of the receivers.»
«It’s just been an all-around blessing being around really this whole room, but obviously Puka in particular, having a dude that can come in and have the type of year that he has and still have the humility to be as humble as what he is and continues to be,» Adams said.
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It hasn’t been perfect, as Nacua has four drops this season, according to ESPN Research. In 2023, Nacua had nine drops, which is tied for the second most in the NFL. In 11 games last season, Nacua had just one, which was tied for the second fewest among the 38 players with at least 100 targets this season, according to ESPN Research. His four drops in 2025 are tied for the 26th most in the NFL.
The other goal Yarber gave Nacua was to work on cutting off of the correct foot. Early in his career, Nacua would «be in such a hurry to run his routes that he would cut off the wrong foot,» Yarber said.
Part of the journey of improving his nutrition that started while working with Kupp has helped Nacua in his route running.
«He’s got much better body control right now,» Yarber said. «He lost a lot of body fat which enabled him to move efficiently. Now when he puts his foot in the ground, the momentum and the excess fat is not keeping him in that same momentum. Now when he puts his foot in the ground, it’s going in a different direction.»
Still, despite a season in which he had a career-high 129 catches for 1,715 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns, there were growing pains for the third-year receiver.
It was evident after the Rams’ Week 16 overtime loss in Seattle. Instead of answering questions about his 12-catch, 225-yard and two-touchdown-catch performance, Nacua was answering questions about his rocky week off the field.
Two days before the Thursday night game, Nacua appeared on a livestream where he made a gesture that has been associated with antisemitic tropes. (He later apologized and said he had «no idea» of the nature of the gesture.) He also said in that livestream he thinks some NFL referees make calls just to get shown on TV during games. After the game, Nacua posted on X, «Can you say i was wrong. Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol.» Nacua was fined $25,000 for his comments.
While McVay said after the game that he doesn’t think Nacua was distracted, he said he was going to put his arm around the receiver and «and help him learn and grow» from the incidents.
On the bus after the game, Nacua said Adams checked in on him, providing a different type of mentorship than had been required earlier in the season.
«It was honestly very quickly on the bus on the travel back, but then obviously just throughout the week he was checking in on me, just being there to communicate and asking if there’s anything … that I needed to communicate to the guys or to just get off of my chest to be able to feel free?» Nacua said. «I know he was a listening ear and it was greatly appreciated.»
Nacua and the Rams will be back in the same spot on Sunday afternoon in the NFC Championship Game, hoping not only for a different result than in Week 16, but that the pairing of Nacua and Adams will be the move the Rams needed to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2021 season.
«I think there’s no way the football gods would rather have it be than for us to go back up there and see the all-father [Cooper Kupp] and get a chance to right our wrongs,» Nacua said.
