Puka Nacua Camp Update — August 23: The Return Slid to Next Week Again

Puka Nacua did not practice a single day this week. The core-muscle issue that pulled him out of practice on August eleventh is still holding him out, and the timeline moved by exactly one week: Sean McVay opened the window saying "Puka is doing good, we're just taking it a day at a time," per Blaine Grisak at Sports Illustrated on Monday, and closed it with the team hopeful Nacua returns next week after he made good progress and got in a workout on the side during Thursday's joint practice with the Saints, per Mykell Mathieu at The Sporting Tribune. He was not part of the first-team offense's 45 competitive snaps in that session, and he did not play in Saturday's 34 to nothing win over the Saints, a game no Rams starter played.

The context that gives a soreness absence its weight: last week the stated expectation was that Nacua would resume practicing this week. He did not, and the season opener against San Francisco in Melbourne — with its long flight and compressed preparation — sits roughly two weeks out, with one preseason game left, Thursday against the Chargers, and rosters cutting to 53 next Sunday. A side workout and "good progress" are genuinely better than silence. They are also not a practice rep.

To keep the week in proportion: the injury remains soreness rather than structure, the team's language remains calm, and the calendar remains the adversary. Back in June we previewed Nacua as a solved receiver — a league-leading 129 catches on a 30 percent target share — with availability the one open question, and August has now spent two straight weeks writing in that column.

The checkable item is the same one, sharpened: when Melbourne preparation opens next week, either Nacua is on the practice field or this becomes a genuine Week One story. Watch that, and any explicit word on his status for the opener. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._