When Puka Nacua surprisingly showed up on the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 9 injury report mere days before their showdown against the Seattle Seahawks, it got fans genuinely concerned.
After missing over a month with a knee injury only to return in impressive, dare-I-say Avengers Endgame-style form to galvanize Sean McVay‘s troops and lead the Rams to victory, losing Nacua again, even for just another week, would feel like a cruel trick from the football gods.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like Nacua’s knee is that bad, as he’s listed as questionable for the game, not out or placed on IR, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t concern about putting the pride of BYU out on the field. Why? Well, because according to McVay during his Friday media session, Nacua’s mobility may be limited due to broken-up scar tissue and/or fluid in his knee.
“I think it’s more about… he ended up going to the ground and it was kind of one of those deals that… I think the good thing is what the hope and expectation is that sometimes when you do that coming off an injury, it kind of scares you as much as anything where maybe you broke up some scar tissue,” McVay told reporters. “When you look at the picture, it was really encouraging structurally. There can sometimes be a little bit of fluid, and then that can just limit some of your mobility, but getting that out of there and talking with [Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance] Reggie [Scott] about what his expectation is and knowing how Puka will attack the next couple days. It’s not something we’re concerned about other than wanting to be able to keep our guy off the ground.”
Oh no, that’s not good, especially for a wide receiver like Nacua, who does so much with his legs to juke out cornerbacks and weave through traffic. Fortunately, McVay doesn’t believe Nacua’s issues have a chance to linger on over the course of the regular season, instead suggesting these are the tune-ups that happen with this kind of injury.
Sean McVay doesn’t think Puka Nacua’s knee will remain an issue
Related Los Angeles Rams NewsArticle continues below
Asked if he believes Nacua’s knee will continue to plague him for the rest of the season or, worse, for the rest of his career, McVay said no, noting that he doesn’t have any structural issues or arthritis but is instead working back through the normal recovery process for this kind of injury.
“I don’t expect that. It’s not like it’s an arthritic knee or anything like that. It’s just been kind of unfortunate where you’ve had the two instances that we talked about and then yesterday,” McVay noted. “Our hope is that it was more of a scare than really anything. I think in such a short amount of time… you go to the ground no matter whether you have a history with a knee or not, how physical he plays, and how heavy sometimes he can go down, that’s what can occur. I don’t anticipate that being something that’s going to be an issue moving forward.”
Ultimately, while it’s never nice to see one of any team’s top-5 players land on the injury report, it’s at least good news to learn that the scans are good and that Nacua, who is only 23, doesn’t have an arthritic knee two years into his professional career. If he can’t play in Week 9, that would be a major bummer, but considering just how impressive Nacua has played just 20 games into his professional career, it’s safe to say his long-term longevity has to be priority number one.