Will Cooper Kupp’s return hurt Puka Nacua?
Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua has had a dream start to his first NFL season.
After four weeks, he has the most receptions in the league and the third-most receiving yards, according to NFL.com. He also just scored his first NFL touchdown, winning a game for his team in the process.
But Nacua’s dream could soon be over thanks to the return of the man who used to pop into people’s minds when you said “the Rams’ top receiver.”
Is Cooper Kupp going to play Sunday?
Cooper Kupp, the NFL’s offensive player of the year for the 2021-22 season, is expected to play Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles after spending the first four weeks of the season on IR.
Kupp has been rehabbing a hamstring injury he sustained during training camp. He missed the end of last season with a separate ankle issue.
“Kupp has not played in a game since Week 10 of 2022. ... He had 75 catches for 812 yards and six touchdowns in nine games before the injury,” according to ESPN.
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Rams head coach Sean McVay told reporters this week that he doesn’t expect Kupp to be on a snap count in his return. However, he added that it’s hard to know how the receiver will feel.
“Once he gets going, you want to be smart about it,” McVay said, according to ESPN. “There’s nothing quite replicating the competitiveness and the tempo that occurs on game day, but that’ll be something that we want to be careful about.”
Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp
Kupp told reporters Friday that his time on IR should ensure that he won’t deal with lingering soreness throughout the season ahead.
“The way we went into this was to plan on not having this be something we have to deal with,” he said, according to The Athletic.
Kupp also discussed how excited he is to take the field again.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he said.
Nacua’s fans have also been waiting for this moment, which could derail the rookie receiver’s history-making season. It will be hard for Nacua to keep getting as many receptions and yards as he’s been getting when Kupp is also on the field making plays.
But McVay has a message for people who are worried about the balance between Kupp and Nacua: Having two good receivers is a good problem to have.
“I think it is good for guys to have complementary skillsets, which I think those two do of one another as well, but you look at it and it’s a fun thing to be able to work through,” he said on Wednesday, according to SB Nation.
The Athletic drew a similar conclusion in its analysis of what the Rams’ offense will look like moving forward. Nacua will remain a key part of the team, the article said.
“For Puka Nacua, this isn’t the end,” The Athletic reported, noting that teams like the Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins show that it’s possible to have multiple dominant receivers at the same time.
