{"id":1008970,"date":"2026-09-23T22:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T22:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1008970\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T22:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T22:51:15","slug":"rams-star-puka-nacua-still-questionable-to-play-sunday-vs-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1008970\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams star Puka Nacua still questionable to play Sunday vs. Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rams<\/a> star receiver Puka Nacua<\/a> remains sidelined because of groin soreness and his status for Sunday\u2019s game against the Denver Broncos is unclear, coach Sean McVay<\/a> said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Nacua was not scheduled to participate in a light team jog-through. Asked if he expected Nacua to play against the Broncos, McVay said, \u201cI\u2019m not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Nacua practice this week?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s more likely than not, but we\u2019ll see,\u201d McVay said.<\/p>\n

Nacua, the NFL\u2019s receptions leader in 2025, sat out the Rams\u2019 victory<\/a> over the New York Giants on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Are the Rams concerned that Nacua\u2019s injury could be a longer-term issue?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d McVay said, adding. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a skill player and you\u2019re really trying to hit high-speed yards and really open up\u2026 it\u2019s like some of the things that can almost be pre-hernia is kind of what he\u2019s feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou err on the side of caution. Usually time is the best thing that allows that thing to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

McVay said Nacua does not have a hernia, and that the team\u2019s training and medical staff did not feel the issue was \u201cany type of long term threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know that he\u2019s frustrated,\u201d McVay said, \u201cand we all want him to be able to be out there. But we want him to be able to return to performance, not just be able to just kind of gut through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quarterback Matthew Stafford said Nacua is an \u201cunbelievable\u201d player and loves having him on the field. But he trusts in all Rams receivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertain things that he does at a high level that maybe move down the list a little bit on things that we might run,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cBut once the play\u2019s called and things that we do, I trust all those guys to go out there and execute at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

Running back Ronnie Rivers, who is also a key special teams player, was placed on injured reserve because of a \u201cfreak\u201d calf injury suffered when he jumped to loosen up during the game against the Giants, McVay said. Running backs Dean Connors or Jordan Waters could be promoted to the roster for the game against the Broncos. The Rams signed safety Maximus Pulley to the roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rams star receiver Puka Nacua remains sidelined because of groin soreness and his status for Sunday\u2019s game against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1008971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[232,7,853,3480,3144,131975,131977,1014,58,2444,2611,3687,1075,6,131976,92771,424,1647,3667,5865,5571],"class_list":["post-1008970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-rams","tag-broncos","tag-football","tag-game","tag-high-level","tag-injury","tag-light-team","tag-longer-term-issue","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesrams","tag-mcvay","tag-nacua","tag-nfl","tag-ram-receiver","tag-ram-star-puka-nacua","tag-rams","tag-roster","tag-sunday","tag-thing","tag-training"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117322808285664289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}