Puka Nacua’s rise to superstardom has been rare, even by the NFL’s standards. An overlooked fifth-round pick in 2023, Nacua set records as a rookie and has proceeded to become one of the best wide receivers in football after three short seasons.
For the third straight year, he landed on the NFL’s Top 100 Players list and he’s never been higher than he is this time around. Nacua was voted the league’s seventh-best player for 2026, a huge jump from No. 41 last year.
After battling injuries in 2024, he actually dropped from No. 33 to 41 on the Top 100 list, but his outstanding season in 2025 has him in the top 10. In 16 games last season, he caught a league-high 129 passes for 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns, also leading the NFL with an average of
107.2 receiving yards per game.
No. 7 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026…@RamsNFL WR Puka Nacua! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/oTY2tJutWi
— NFL (@NFL) August 27, 2026
He was voted a first-team All-Pro and finished third in Offensive Player of the Year voting, making his second career Pro Bowl. It was a season matched only by Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who won Offensive Player of the Year.
Though the rest of the top 10 hasn’t been revealed yet, Smith-Njigba is the only wide receiver ranked higher than Nacua. The other players ahead of Nacua, in no order, are Smith-Njigba, Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, Myles Garrett, Christian McCaffrey and Bijan Robinson.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Puka Nacua makes huge jump into top 10 of NFL's 100 best players
