Agent's Take: How Rams can protect themselves when making a huge financial commitment to Puka Nacua

The most enlightened NFL teams will attempt to sign Pro Bowl and All-Pro players on rookie deals to contract extensions at the earliest possible instance. That's what the Seattle Seahawks did in March with 2025 NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was a 2023 first-round pick. Smith-Njigba became the league's highest-paid wide receiver on a four-year, $168.6 million extension, averaging $42.15 million per year, with a wide receiver-record $120,067,996 in overall guarantees. 

The deal is front-loaded. Smith-Njigba gets 25.2% of his new money before playing any of his new contract years, which start in 2028. Smith-Njigba has 37.1% of his new money through his first new contract year in 2028.

Under ordinary circumstances, wide receiver Puka Nacua would be a prime candidate to get a new deal before the Los Angeles Rams report to training camp on July 25 based on his production. The 2023 fifth-round pick led the NFL with 129 receptions for 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns, all career highs, last season. Nacua's 107.2 receiving yards per game topped the NFL. He also carried the ball 10 times for 105 yards with a touchdown.

Nacua is off to one of the most productive starts to an NFL career for a wide receiver. He has 313 receptions for 4,191 yards and 19 receiving touchdowns in the 44 games he has played during his first three NFL seasons. Nacua's 313 receptions are fourth-most ever in this span behind Justin Jefferson (324), Michael Thomas (321) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (315). Only Jefferson (4,825) has more receiving yards through three seasons than Nacua. His 95.3 receiving yards per game are the most in NFL history.

The Rams would have a hard time justifying to Nacua that he shouldn't top the wide receiver pay scale after making Trent McDuffie the NFL's highest-paid cornerback in connection with his March trade from the Kansas City Chiefs. McDuffie's deal has a cornerback-record $100 million in overall guarantees. Quite frankly, Nacua is a better wide receiver than McDuffie is a cornerback.

Nacua would be in line to reset the wide receiver market with a four-year extension, averaging upward to $45 million per year, where there is as much as $125 million in overall guarantees, including in the neighborhood of $95 million fully guaranteed at signing. Both guarantee marks would be new standards for wide receivers. The deal would likely be front-loaded similar to Smith-Njigba's.

Off-the-field issues are jeopardizing Nacua's early payday. Nacua tried to sneak live streamers into the Rams practice facility against head coach Sean McVay's wishes late last season. During the livestream, Nacua performed a suggested touchdown dance with a gesture considered antisemitic, for which he apologized. A lawsuit was filed against Nacua in March alleging he bit a woman while intoxicated and made antisemitic statements on New Year's Eve. Nacua spent time earlier this offseason in a holistic care facility to focus on personal growth and overall behavioral improvement.

There have been instances where off-the-field problems didn't deter a team from giving a highly productive player in the final year of a rookie contract a new deal. It may be worth it for the Rams to explore a new deal for the Rams with an extremely team-friendly structure. 

That's what the Chiefs did with wide receiver Tyreek Hill in 2019. There were bigger concerns with Hill than Nacua. Hill was a fifth-round pick in 2016 primarily because of a domestic violence incident in college. The Chiefs banned Hill from offseason team activities in 2019 due to child abuse allegations relating to his toddler son until the NFL announced shortly before the start of training camp in July that he wouldn't be suspended because it couldn't conclude he violated the league's personal conduct policy based on available information. 

The Chiefs signed Hill to a three-year, $54 million extension right before the 2019 regular season started making him the NFL's third-highest-paid wide receiver along with Odell Beckham Jr. at $18 million per year despite having more baggage than Nacua. Because of Hill's baggage, the Chiefs protected themselves with the contract's structure in case Hill had another misstep.

Hill got a modest signing bonus and fewer contract guarantees than comparable deals. The base salaries were minimal. There were large per-game 53-man roster bonuses in each of the new contract years and a seldom-used reporting (to training camp) bonus with significant money in the last two years. Approximately 60% of Hill's money was in these salary components.

The Rams could incorporate elements of Hill's structure with Nacua while also deviating from some of their structural conventions used with the most prominent players throughout Les Snead's tenure as general manager. Several Rams veteran contracts have had no offsets with some of the guarantees. This was the case with Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley, Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford's deals. The Rams paid Bobby Wagner $3.5 million in 2023 after releasing him because his fully guaranteed March 2023 roster bonus didn't have offsets. All of Nacua's guarantees would have offsets.

The guarantees in later contract years vest one year early in the bigger Rams deals (i.e.; injury guaranteed 2028 base salary becomes fully guaranteed in March 2027 on the fifth day of the 2027 league year). That wouldn't happen with Nacua. These guarantees would vest in that particular year (i.e.; injury guaranteed 2028 base salary becomes fully guaranteed in March 2028 on the fifth day of the 2028 league year).

Using the Chiefs' approach with Hill, a four-year, $150 million extension would put Nacua third in the wide receiver salary hierarchy at $37.5 million per year. The total guarantees would be $80 million. Smith-Njigba, Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase and CeeDee Lamb each have at least $100 million of total guarantees in their contracts. Chase, Jefferson and Lamb are, respectively, the league's second-, fourth- and fifth-highest-paid wide receivers with four-year extensions, averaging $40.25 million, $35 million and $34 million per year. Nacua could have another $20 million that's completely unsecured become fully guaranteed (i.e.; $20 million of 2029 compensation becomes fully guaranteed in March 2029 on the fifth day of the 2029 league year).

The amount fully guaranteed at signing for Jefferson, Chase and Lamb ranges from $88.743 million to $67 million. Nacua's wouldn't exceed $60 million.

The yearly cash in the deal would be flat if not backloaded. In a neutral four-year extension that's neither front-loaded or back-loaded, Nacua would have 25% of the new money through the first new contract year, 50% of the new money through the second new contract year and 75% of the new money through the third new contract year. There would only be 5% of the new money through the final year of Nacua's existing contract (2026). That's a little less than McDuffie, who has 6.75% of his new money through his 2026 contract year. It's a far cry from Smith-Njigba who has a slightly higher percentage of new money before playing any of his new contract years than Nacua would have through his first new contract year. That would be $7.5 million, $37.5 million, $75 million, and $112.5 million of the new money at these respective points of the contract with Nacua. 

It would be interesting to see whether Nacua would be receptive to a team-friendly structure with a slight discount on the total contract value in order to get a new deal before the 2026 regular season starts. As a fifth-round compensatory pick in 2023, Nacua has made just $2,950,060 from his NFL contract in three years, which could pique his interest in such a deal. His salary in 2026, the last year of his rookie contract, is almost double that at $5.767 million thanks to earning a collectively bargained salary escalator making his fourth-year compensation equal to the 2026 second-round restricted free agent tender.

The Rams would be running the risk of insisting upon a contract structure and average yearly salary so team friendly that Nacua might consider playing out his rookie contract a more attractive option. Barring extenuating circumstances (continued off-the-field problems or a severe injury), Nacua seems destined for a franchise tag next offseason if he doesn't get a new deal. Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who holds the NFL's single-season receiving yards record, picked Nacua as the player most likely to break his mark. 

Having that come to fruition in 2026 could give Nacua enough ammunition to become the league's highest-paid non-quarterback, like Jefferson and Chase did with their deals, next year. That distinction currently belongs to Houston Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr., who signed a three-year, $150 million extension, averaging $50 million per year, in April. Additionally, fellow starting wide receiver Davante Adams will be a 34-year-old unrestricted free agent in 2027.

The Rams being comfortable that Nacua has turned over a new leaf might lead to new deal sooner rather than later. If so, the structure would probably be more like Smith-Njigba's than Hill's Chiefs contract and at Nacua's fair market value. It remains to be seen how Nacua's contract situation actually unfolds.