Nacua came out of Tuesday's joint practice with the Cowboys banged up, and by Thursday he wasn't on the field at all. For a Rams offense that leans on him as heavily as it does, that's the kind of absence that gets noticed fast.
The injury itself: soreness in the psoas, the muscle that runs from the lower back through the pelvis and into the leg. McVay confirmed the location and said the Rams were simply being cautious, not reacting to anything serious.
This isn't a guy the Rams can afford to shrug off. Nacua is entering the final year of his rookie deal, and he's coming off a season where he led the entire NFL in receptions with 129 catches and finished second in the league in receiving yards. He's got two Pro Bowl nods and All-Pro buzz to go with it, and he's already made clear he views himself as a top-tier receiver worth top-tier money whenever an extension talk actually happens. None of that gets settled by sitting out a joint practice, but it's the backdrop for why every tweak to his body draws this much attention.
McVay isn't treating this like a real scare. He told reporters he expects Nacua back at practice next week "ready to go," and pointed out he tends to keep his stars out of preseason reps anyway, so missing exhibition snaps was never really the concern here.
Fantasy managers, naturally, are watching the calendar differently. With regular season kickoff a few weeks out, any absence from Nacua — even a cautious one — turns into a countdown clock for drafters trying to figure out where he lands on their board.
A rundown counting the weeks until Puka Nacua actually takes the field in a real game.
Barring a setback, this reads like standard training-camp maintenance for a guy the Rams have every incentive to protect. The real story to track isn't the psoas — it's whether Nacua is fully cleared and running full routes once next week's practices open back up.