Why Selfless Puka Nacua Is A Cheat Code For Rams’ Offense Against Eagles

PHILADELPHIA — Puka Nacua will be back for the talented Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in Philadelphia, and the piece of Sean McVay’s offense that accompanies him is not only the catch volume you expect from an All-Pro receiver but the willingness to stick his nose into interior gaps to help the ground game.

McVay said Friday that Nacua will play against the Eagles with no injury designation after missing the last two games with hip and groin soreness. He practiced through the week, looked “sharp,” “sturdy” and “explosive” in McVay’s words, and is expected to have his snap count managed in his first game since the Sept. 10 opener in Australia, where he caught five passes for 74 yards.

Last season Nacua led the NFL with 129 receptions for 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Rams, 1-2, get him back on the road against an Eagles team McVay has rarely beaten, while Aaron Donald sits with back soreness.

What returns with Nacua is the insert game that has become a McVay staple. Britain Covey, who grew up around the Nacua family in Provo, Utah, and later shared the Rams receiver room with him before returning to Philadelphia, boiled down why inserts work so well with Nacua into the star receiver’s selfless nature.

No Ego

“Puka has no ego to him,” Covey told Eagles On SI Friday.

Covey’s tie to Nacua goes back long before either was an NFL player. Puka’s older brother Samson was one of Covey’s closest friends from middle school. The families were the kind of close that meant opening the fridge without asking.

Covey, about five years older and a two-time state champion quarterback at Timpview, watched the younger Nacua come up as the little brother who was not yet on the varsity field.

By the time Covey signed with the Rams in 2025, that little brother was the star.

Covey noted that Nacua is one of the few superstar receivers who could go multiple games without a catch, win, and not say a word about it — the Eagles’ DeVonta Smith is the other name Covey offered.

“His willingness to stick his head in there and block, he’s one of the few superstar receivers,” Covey said. “It just speaks volumes to how he grew up, his play style.”

Insert blocking itself is common, a staple of all 32 teams according to Covey.

Almost none treat it the way the Rams do, however. McVay has turned it from a blocking device into a play-action nightmare by releasing Nacua into routes through all the interior traffic.

The concept either asks a receiver to crack down from outside and seal a defender in the C-gap, often a linebacker or edge, so the run can bounce or cut behind him.

Most inserts are called as an option. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford can check the alignment of the defensive end and either bring Nacua in or send him out on a route.

Covey estimated a play can be tagged insert up to 25 times and only executed on 10, which is why it is hard to scout from the film.

Defenses know they are allowed to hit the receiver coming through. Covey’s explanation for why they still miss is about aiming points.

Insert blocks are rarely straight up. Nacua aims a shoulder on every run, so the defender sets to spill or seal that shoulder while staying in run support.

“All it takes is a one-foot slip,” Covey said. “They’re used to him going for a shoulder. It’s not like they’re used to him going straight up the middle.” One slide, and the hands never arrive.

McVay was also, in Covey’s telling, the first coach to turn the insert into a full route tree — corner, post, the works — after the fake.

Play-action and eye candy have to sell it, though.

“You have to really mess with people’s heads,” Covey said. “A lot has to go right for those plays to be successful. And when you got someone like Stafford, that’s the first key to the puzzle.”

Chicago’s Ben Johnson even used two players on one insert look, something Covey had never seen despite being with the innovator of the strategy.

Other teams have had their version of the dirty-work receiver. Covey mentioned Zach Pascal, Darius Cooper, and Dontayvion Wicks during his time with the Eagles. To date, the Eagles haven’t expanded insert blocks into a play-action tool.

“Puka’s just a different level,” Covey said. “It’s not often you get a guy with that ability and that willingness [to block] in combination.”

Sunday is the first chance in three weeks to see both pieces at once: the receiver who led the league in catches, and the blocker who will take the C-gap collision so the run game can pop.

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