Puka Nacua leaves Rams’ season opener with knee injury

Puka Nacua’s first game of his sophomore NFL season was off to a promising start before he left in the second quarter with a knee injury.
Nacua limped off the field after a 6-yard reception and went to the blue medical tent, according to The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue, during the Los Angeles Rams’ season opener against the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.
The Rams announced Nacua was questionable to return, but he briefly made an appearance back in the game before returning to the sideline during Los Angeles’ final drive of the first half.
Nacua had four catches for 35 yards and one carry for 7 yards before exiting the game. He was carted off the field following the first half of play, according to the NBC telecast of the game.
Moments into second half, the Rams announced that Nacua would not return to the contest.
Postgame, Rams coach Sean McVay said he didn’t have an update on the severity of Nacua’s injury and whether it’s the same knee the receiver injured during training camp.
Nacua missed most of training camp with a knee injury suffered during a joint practice but returned to practice last week. He is coming off a record-setting rookie season, when he set the NFL rookie marks for receptions (105) and receiving yards (1,486) in a season.
He earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors for his rookie season, and Nacua headed into 2024 as one of the top young talents at his position in the game.
Over the summer, Nacua came in at No. 33 on the player-voted NFL Top 100 Players of 2024 rankings, as the Deseret News previously reported.
During the offseason, he trained with fellow Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who won the NFL triple crown in 2021, leading the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
Nacua said the workouts went beyond conditioning — it also gave him the chance to pick Kupp’s brain about the intricacies of the Rams’ offense, as well as about the timing of the NFL game.
“There’s ability then there’s timing in place where you’re going to open up your stride and you’re going to get the full length,” Nacua said, according to the Rams website. “There’s going to be times where it’s going to feel close quarters and you’re going to have to shorten up your stride to be able to cross the defender’s face. Not necessarily run different routes, but to be able to fine tune some of the stuff that we continue to do all the time.”