{"id":764978,"date":"2026-02-20T17:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764978\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:22:23","slug":"is-puka-nacua-headed-for-a-crash-out-and-should-rams-pay-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764978\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Puka Nacua headed for a crash out and should Rams pay him?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I tweeted that Puka Nacua was going to sign a contract extension worth over $30 million per season<\/a> and that he would prove to be a better receiver than Ja\u2019Marr Chase, a declaration that even Rams fans said was going too far. Now entering his first offseason as an extension eligible player, Nacua\u2019s contract valuation will push to exceed Chase\u2019s record-breaking contract from 2025, a deal that pays him over $40 million per year.<\/p>\n

Are fans still going to push back on my belief that Puka is going to be the highest-paid receiver in the league?<\/p>\n

Now that Nacua has established that he\u2019s as good as any receiver in the league and as the Rams are finalizing the terms of a contract that could pay him more than Chase, the next question specific to Nacua has to be about whether or not he\u2019s ready for celebrity and fame.<\/p>\n

Since becoming a true NFL star, Puka has certainly acted like a young person excited by the spotlight and at times that has drawn comparisons not to Chase, but to Antonio Brown.<\/p>\n

Puka did appear to be speaking in gibberish in one clip at the Daytona 500:<\/p>\n

Is there going to be a limit for \u201ctoo much\u201d or is it just a focused athlete enjoying his days off?<\/p>\n

Aside from now becoming a part of the \u201cwho is he dating?\u201d celebrity culture, a pretty normal side of modern day pro athlete stardom, Puka has also been cozying up to 49ers cheerleaders, fans, and players when basically any opportunity comes up for a photo shoot or a podcast.<\/p>\n

If we have entered the age when NFL players won\u2019t be able to keep their dating lives and drinking habits private, have we exited the one where rival players actually want to beat each other in football \u2014 or would at least pretend to by not accepting literally any invitation to make an appearance on a podcast for no comprehensible reason?<\/p>\n

I mean, call me old fashioned but perhaps the thing that young NFL players do today that is far more confounding than doing too many commercials<\/a> or sending a drunk tweet<\/a> that they regret is podcasts.<\/p>\n

What exactly are players getting out of being on every other podcast every other day? I understand why musicians, actors, and comedians do podcast interviews, to promote something that they need to sell so that they can make a living. But active NFL players don\u2019t have anything to promote to make money because they\u2019re getting paid to play football. They will get paid the same whether they are more famous or less famous, as long as they continue to perform at a high level.<\/p>\n

In fact, the only possible result of doing a bunch of podcasts is a loss of skill, not a gain. Explaining your process or what happened behind the scenes of a recent game while you\u2019re still in the NFL could only do harm, not good. It\u2019s probably not going to do anything but that\u2019s just as much the same point:<\/p>\n

Puka Nacua can\u2019t get ANYTHING from doing a podcast. Yet he still seems to love the opportunity to say yes to any interview on the table.<\/p>\n

The almost daily appearances by Puka doing something or other that goes viral online is leading Puka to being compared to Antonio Brown by some fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one thing to pop up online once in a while and make a funny joke about wanting to date Sydney Sweeney<\/a>, but seriously I don\u2019t understand how one of the best football players in the world who still has so much more room to develop has time for all the interviews and public appearances and commercials and gaming that he does.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s truly another testament to this guy\u2019s skill that he was arguably the best football player in the world in 2025.<\/p>\n

But the unfortunate reality of the NFL is that this is not the NBA or the MLB\u2014almost nobody is \u201cthe best\u201d for very long when it\u2019s football. The sport is too violent and too based on athletic skill to believe that Puka Nacua will have the same longevity of LeBron James or Michael Jordan. In actuality, while an NBA star can dominate for 10-15 years or a great pitcher can stand atop the game for over a decade, the NFL\u2019s best receiver usually has 3-5 years tops.<\/p>\n

Even the GOAT receiver Jerry Rice had 10 years when he was elite and then 10 years when he was just really good. And that\u2019s JERRY RICE.<\/p>\n

Compare that to Rams great Cooper Kupp and there\u2019s a guy who was literally the best receiver in the league for one season. ONE. That\u2019s it. And that\u2019s COOPER KUPP.<\/p>\n

While Puka is milking every ounce of \u201ccelebrity\u201d from Internet fame, the priority still has to be on his football career and making sure that the only conversations that anyone is having about Nacua is whether or not he should have won Offensive Player of the Year over Jaxon Smith-Njigba or what he can do to help the Rams beat the Seahawks and the other 30 teams to win the next Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Those are the only conversations anyone should be having about Nacua for the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

But it was just a couple of months ago that Nacua showed up on an Adin Ross twitch stream during a playoff run<\/a> and then having to apologize for an \u201cantisemitic dance\u201d.<\/p>\n

And since losing to Seattle in the NFC Championship game, Nacua has only appeared in the news for: a) being drunk in public, b) tweeting some shade about Sam Darnold, c) acting strange at the Daytona 500, d) podcast appearance after podcast appearance, e) all of the above.<\/p>\n

Look you can say about any 24-year-old athlete superstar, \u201cHe\u2019s only 24!\u201d and you\u2019d be 100% right. He\u2019s acting like a normal 24-year-old.<\/p>\n

Which could be a problem\u2026because Puka Nacua is anything but \u201cnormal\u201d. He\u2019s living in this small bubble of his entire lifetime where he can be the best football player in the world. This opportunity will fade faster than the route. Kupp might tell you that winning Offensive Player of the Year was both the best thing and the worst thing to ever happen to him;<\/p>\n

\u201cBest\u201d because Kupp was phenomenal and won the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorst\u201d because the toll it took on his body probably robbed him of the next three years of his career.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s \u201cfamily man\u201d Cooper Kupp.<\/p>\n

Nacua is coming off of a season in which he was targeted over 200 times and he missed one game. He missed six games in 2024. He has been unable to finish multiple games in the last year because of injuries.<\/p>\n

So if Path A is: Puka Nacua never shows up in the media, he\u2019s too busy.<\/p>\n

Well, as a Rams fan, or as the general manager of the Rams about to pay him over $100 million guaranteed to own the rights to that small window of time when he\u2019s an absolute great, which Path would you want to choose for him?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just blindly choose B because you recognize, like we all should, that Puka is a phenomenal player and potentially the best in the league right now. Just be selfish for once and answer the question of what you would hope for out of those two options for Puka to give himself over to completely: Celebrity or Stardom?<\/p>\n

I once told you that Puka Nacua was going to become the best receiver in the world and few people believed or agreed with me.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m saying that there\u2019s no way that a star football player showing up in the non-football news every other week is better than disappearing until training camp. Will you believe me now?<\/p>\n