When Makea ‘Puka’ Nacua was picked up by the LA Rams in 2023 as the 177th pick in round 5 of the draft, he was not very well known. The BYU wide receiver had performed admirably for his college but wasn’t ‘the talk of the town’ during the 2023 draft. All this was about to change!! Fast forward to January 2025 and ‘Puka’ is one of the hottest names in the NFL. The Rams WR took the league by storm breaking records in his first 3 games for the Rams in 2023. ‘Puka’ had an incredible 2023 season and was part of the PFWA All-Rookie team and the All-Pro ‘second team’.

As Nacua grew as a player and in popularity, people certainly became interested in learning more about the Rams WR. The one thing that many people have been interested in knowing is about the ethnicity of Nacua. Well, the Rams star wide receiver is of Polynesian and Portuguese descent. Puka’s father was originally from Hawaii and had Portuguese roots, while his maternal grandmother was from West Samoa and moved to the US with his mother in 1968.

The biggest reflection of Nacua’s Samoan heritage is in his name as ‘Puka’ in Samoan means ‘fat and chubby’. In 2019, Nacua spoke about the same, “It’s from when I was a baby and it kind of stuck. Going up through school, everybody knows me as Puka even though I slimmed out,” he said.

Puka Nacua is very proud of his heritage and culture and talked about the same after he was named Offensive MVP in the 2019 Polynesian Bowl. Nacua said, “These awards, the Polynesian award[s], I think mean definitely a little bit more. I’m grateful to win every award, but these Polynesian awards represent my culture, my family, and [with] all these other Polynesian athletes that came out here, this one definitely has to go on top.”

Nacua’s journey to NFL was surely not easy. But now the WR has made quite a name for himself, however, his performances are not without faults. But the flashes of brilliance are what made him well known in such a small time.

Should the Vikings be worried about Puka Nacua?

The last time the LA Rams and the Minnesota Vikings faced each other, Nacua took the Vikings by surprise and made a difference. ‘Puka’ played a big role catching seven of nine targets for 106 yards. After the game, the Vikings DC Brian Flores even admitted that they were surprised by Nacua and were ‘scrambling’ a bit. He said, “Quite honestly we were a little bit surprised that he was out there…. There was a little bit of scrambling.”

Well, when the DC of the opposite team admits that they were scrambling because of you, expectations certainly are high when you face the same team again. Nacua will prepare hard and look to trouble the Vikings’ defense like last time. This time, though, it might be a bit difficult. Last time, Nacua’s late activation from the injured reserve list surprised Flores, but this time he knows Nacua will be out there and has some plans to stop the Rams’ WR.

Talking about the same, Flores said, “We know he’s going to be out there now this time out. We’ll do a better job — or I’ll do a better job — of making sure our guys are prepared from that standpoint.”

Whenever ‘Puka’ and Kupp are both out there, the Rams have looked like a completely different team and even QB Matthew Stafford has looked much better with both the receivers on the field. The three of them just work together!! It will be interesting to see what Flores comes up with to try to stop the trio. Whatever happens, it surely will be an interesting game to watch.