Puka Nacua left the Los Angeles Rams‘ practice early on Thursday with a calf injury, a fresh scare for a 2-4 team that learned on Monday it will be without Davante Adams for six to 10 weeks.
The Rams visit the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET at Allegiant Stadium. Thursday is normally the heaviest workload of the Rams’ practice week, and the team had not detailed the severity of the injury by Thursday evening.
Adams went down on a non-contact play late in Sunday’s 18-16 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Sean McVay said that Adams had suffered a ruptured semitendinosus in his hamstring. The 33-year-old had 30 catches for 480 yards and four touchdowns through six games, and the same afternoon cost the Rams nose tackle Poona Ford for the season with a ruptured triceps.
Rams WR Puka Nacua left practice early today due to a calf injury. https://t.co/YDtwN3XyCx
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 22, 2026
What the Rams have behind Nacua at receiver
The active receivers behind Nacua are Konata Mumpfield, Jordan Whittington, Tutu Atwell, C.J. Daniels and Alex Bachman. Mumpfield, a seventh-round pick in 2025, leads that group with eight catches for 127 yards. Whittington has two catches for 12 yards, and Atwell, whom the Rams traded back for this offseason, has three for 31.
Those three have combined for 13 catches and 170 yards, a little more than a third of what Adams produced by himself before he got hurt. If Nacua is limited or held out in Las Vegas, Matthew Stafford’s most productive available receiver would be a second-year player with 127 yards on the season. That is a thin margin for an offense already rebuilding its passing game on the fly.
The calf also gives Nacua a third separate muscle issue since mid-August. He left an Aug. 11 joint practice against the Dallas Cowboys with soreness in his psoas, a deep core muscle that helps with hip movement. In September, a hip and groin injury that McVay compared to “pre-hernia” pain kept him out of the Rams’ Week 2 and Week 3 games.
Surgery on the groin was discussed as an option if that injury did not improve, though the Rams did not believe it would be necessary. Nacua sat out the full practice week before the Denver game in September and returned for Week 4 at Philadelphia after McVay said he “looked sharp” in practice.
That track record points toward a cautious call in Las Vegas, even with Adams gone. Friday’s practice will give the first clear indication of where this calf injury stands for Sunday’s game, and the team’s final injury report, with game designations, follows that session.
The post Puka Nacua calf injury may concern Rams fans already without Davante Adams appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.