list of the top 25 NFL draft picks in the last 25 years<\/a>. <\/p>\nSchwab\u2019s list included Nacua, the only BYU product to make the cut. Here\u2019s where Nacua ranked \u2014 and who he outranked.<\/p>\n
Where Puka Nacua ranks among best NFL draft picks<\/p>\n
When compiling his list, Schwab took into account the round in which a player was selected. <\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t exclusive to Day 3 picks like Nacua, though \u201cthird-day draft value was a big factor,\u201c Schwab noted at the beginning of the article.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can make a great, grand slam pick at No. 1 overall. Sometimes it\u2019s a big trade up in the first round that makes the pick smart, or an unconventional move that ends up being a franchise-changing decision,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, Nacua slots in as the sixth-best draft pick on the list.<\/p>\n
Schwab ranks Nacua higher than three-time Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes (No. 7) and Lamar Jackson (No. 8), a two-time NFL MVP like Mahomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years we\u2019ll be asking the question, \u2018Who is this year\u2019s Puka Nacua?\u2019 And the answer, more often than not, will be \u2018nobody.\u2019 This was a once-in-a-generation pick for the Rams,\u201c Schwab wrote. <\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cNacua was a fifth-rounder who had a good production profile in college but nonetheless was ignored for the first two-plus days of the draft. It didn\u2019t take long for the rest of the NFL to regret passing on him. Nacua set an NFL rookie record for receiving yards.\u201c<\/p>\n
Though Mahomes and Jackson were both first-round picks, they made the top 10 based on Jackson\u2019s slip to No. 32 in the draft and Mahomes being the second quarterback taken in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering Mahomes went well after second overall pick Mitchell Trubisky and one pick after speedy receiver John Ross, we\u2019ll count trading up and drafting a future all-time great at No. 10 as one of the best picks of this century,\u201d Schwab wrote.<\/p>\n
Who else ranked below Puka Nacua?<\/p>\n
Nacua was the second-highest wide receiver on the list behind Antonio Brown, who Schwab ranked fifth overall. The next highest receiver is Devin Hester, ranked No. 11. <\/p>\n
Receivers Justin Jefferson (No. 18), Tyreek Hill (No. 21), Amon-Ra St. Brown (No. 22) and Julio Jones (No. 23) also made the list behind Nacua. <\/p>\n
Other notable names ranked after Nacua include Rob Gronkowski, Russell Wilson, Travis Kelce, Josh Allen and Aaron Donald.<\/p>\n
Who ranked ahead of Puka Nacua?<\/p>\n
The following five players were ranked higher than Nacua:<\/p>\n
Tom Brady \u2014 No. 199 overall pick in 2000Brock Purdy \u2014 No. 262 overall pick in 2022Jalen Hurts \u2014 No. 53 overall in 2020Aaron Rodgers \u2014 No. 24 overall in 2005Antonio Brown \u2014 No. 195 overall in 2010 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Puka Nacua has made quite the name for himself as a fifth-round draft pick. As a rookie in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,1852,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-199908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-news-feed-national","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114837030457176123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199908","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=199908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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