Final Dynasty Rookie Report Card: Wide Receivers, Part One

Each week throughout the 2023 NFL season, we have covered two or more rookies, looking at their performance to date and future potential. With the 2023 season now complete, the final report cards are due. I’ll only look at their time on the field, ignoring injuries that caused them to miss games. This week, we’ll look back at the 2023 rookie wide receivers.

Puka Nacua, WR LAR

2023 stats: 105 receptions on 160 targets, 1486 yards, and six receiving touchdowns; 12 carries for 89 yards; 298.5 PPR points, WR4 overall

With Cooper Kupp missing the first four games of the NFL season, the Rams needed someone to step up. That someone was Puka Nacua, a fifth-round rookie hailing from BYU. Nacua set the rookie record for single-game receptions in week two with 15 and was the WR4 in fantasy football through the first four weeks of the 2024 season. By the end of his rookie season, he also held the record for most receptions and yards. The yardage record was set in 1960 by Bill Groman. He eclipsed Justin Jefferson’s 1,400-yard rookie season (2020) and Ja'Marr Chase’s 1,455-yard rookie season (2021).

The most impressive part of his season was his ability to produce alongside Cooper Kupp, who finished as the WR1 overall in 2021 and looked like he would do it again in 2022 before an injury in week ten forced him to miss the final eight games. He was so dominant in the first half of 2022 that he finished as the WR23 overall in only eight complete games.

According to our rookie ADP, it’s incredible to think Nacua was a fourth-round rookie pick. In our most recent 1QB January ADP, he is up to WR7 overall in the first round of startups. Well deserved. There are only five wide receivers I would rank above him.

Jordan Addison, WR MIN