Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua completed the season with the most catches and yards by a rookie receiver in NFL history.
Puka Nacua has broken the all-time rookie receiving yardage record that has stood for 63 years 🤯
1,473 YARDS pic.twitter.com/QucOpX7Nue
— PFF (@PFF) January 7, 2024
On Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, rookie sensation Nacua recorded 1,486 yards this season, breaking a 63-year-old record.
The record was held by Bill Groman, with 1,473 in 1960, Nacua also broke the rookie receptions record with 105, overtaking Jaylen Waddle’s 2021 record.
With his third catch, a 7-yard catch in the third quarter of Sunday’s Week 18 matchup, Nacua sealed the most receiving yards by a rookie in NFL history.
Nacua in the post-game said,
“As much as it will say ‘Puka Nacua’, I wish it could say all 11 guys out there (on the record). It takes all 11. They should all feel that award just as much as I am.”
In the closing game of the season, he ends his rookie season with new high marks of 105 catches and 1,486 yards.
Nacua caught a touchdown pass on the opening drive of the game, and then it was in the third quarter his task was completed of setting the NFL rookie records for catches and yards.
In the first half, Nacua went without a catch, ending the half even with three more drives for the Rams. In a post-game address, coach Sean McVay highlighted the situation the Rams had to face to get Nacua the ball for the rest of the first half.
“I’ve believed in the integrity of the game, and it was one of those deals that you want to allow him to get that because of what he put himself in a position for, but when you start getting outside the framework of operating how you normally would, it was almost like they’re looking and saying, Hey, you know what? You know better.”
At Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, the fifth-round draft pick was chasing history, and the totals of the first two-plus quarters of the game on the final day broke the record.
