What Rome Odunze has in common with Puka Nacua | Yahoo Fantasy Football Show
Yahoo Sports fantasy analyst Matt Harmon and Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network discuss what they like about wide receiver Rome Odunze in the upcoming NFL Draft and explain a trait that Odunze shares with Rams standout Puka Nacua. Hear the full conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Football Show” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
DANIEL JEREMIAH: To me, there's two things I want to hit you on a wide receiver topic, but number one is when you watch guys, like, there's-- I don't even know how else to describe it. It's like, this guy-- like, Keenan Allen to me is a basketball player on the football field. When I watch Rome Odnunze, I think he-- there's a feel and there's a movement that-- there's a basketball player element to what they do.
And so I'm like, OK, it's kind of like a basketball on grass thing. But that was my first thing. The second thing was, when you-- did you see the video that the Rams put out about when they picked Puka, and McVay is in there with--
MATT HARMON: Yes.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: --Les? And McVay is describing exactly the role that he's going to play, has a plan for him, all those things. But the phrase that he used that I'm like, I've described around this many times, but I've never said it this succinctly-- I'm like, I actually talked to a bunch of people about this because I loved it so much-- was he talked about, the thing I love about Puka is he's grounded through the catch. And I'm like, you know that when you see it.
And like, when you watch Roma Odnunze, he hits it. He is full go running through the ball, cleats on the ground. It's one of the reasons why-- we talked about at the combine, like, Puka had the fastest combine gauntlet drill because if you think about it, if your feet never come up-- if you're never jumping to catch a ball, then-- if you jump to catch a ball, you're hitting the brakes.
When you're hauling straight down the line and catching everything because you're so confident in your hands, you run through the ball, you don't gather, you don't leave your feet, it's grounded through the catch. I'm like, what a great scouting phrase that I'm going to use many times over. But Rome Odunze is 100% grounded through the catch.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, there's two things to me that I think about with that quote and just the idea of being grounded through the catch. One, it's confidence in your route running. I think that that's a part of it, just confidence in your hands too.
Overall is like a confidence as a player, I think, in both phases, both in your hands and in your ability to, like, be in the right spot where you're supposed to be, which, I talked to Puka at the Super Bowl, and that was kind of what his-- like, when he told me his favorite route to run was that dig cut, like, on dagger and stuff like that, and just, that Matthew Stafford saw that early in training camp or in mini camps, was like, we need to get that guy the ball on this route specifically over and over and over again because his hands are in the right place. He's in the right place.
So it's-- I think it's that confidence. And also, it's just a fearlessness too because you know, like, a lot of times, when you're working that middle of the field specifically or working on, like, boundary routes and in contested situations, you're going to get clocked a little bit. Not like you used to do in the old days, but you certainly are in a position where you can take a big hit. And I think both Puka and Rome Odnunze have that, like, confidence and fearlessness to their game.
