As Rams receiver Puka Nacua potentially misses a second straight game due to a groin injury, questions linger regarding when he will return.
And it’s now impossible not to wonder whether the absence of a new contract is contributing to the situation.
Nacua is making $5.767 million in the final year of his rookie deal. Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who arrived in the NFL the same year as Nacua, has gotten his second deal, at $42.15 million per year. Yes, Nacua’s contract has been delayed by his off-field issues. But with no financial security beyond this year, Nacua surely doesn’t want to risk aggravating the injury and missing even more time. Likewise, he doesn’t want to perform in a way that will reduce the perception that he deserves to be paid among the best in the league at the position.
Those dynamics are lurking in the latest update from Adam Schefter of ESPN. He reports that Nacua “could return as soon as next week,” but that the groin issue has “impacted his explosiveness.”
The key observation is this — Nacua “functionally” can play, “but he has not felt like he can play with the same explosiveness he has had in the past.”
In other words, he doesn’t want to diminish his contract year by not playing with the characteristic explosiveness.
The team, per Schefter, doesn’t believe surgery will be needed, but it’s “not entirely off the table.”
It’s not a hold-in, per se. It’s apparently a real injury, which brings together a desire to not make it worse and a goal to play as well as he possibly can, when he plays.
Here’s the bottom line — Nacua quite possibly would be playing if he had his second deal and the security that goes along with it.