Is This Real? Week 3

Photo: William Glasheen, USA Today Sports

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Determining what is real, sustainable production instead of unreliable production is critical for your fantasy team. Players that have sustainable production should be anchors to your team and the type of players you seek to acquire in the trade market. Players that have unsustainable production are the types of players that you should not depend on in your lineup and sell trades.

Is Puka Nacua real?

Puka Nacua has been arguably the biggest star of the first two weeks of the NFL season. Entering the season, there was a real question of what the Rams would look like outside of the Matthew Stafford-Cooper Kupp show on offense. Kupp was then placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, which left the Rams offense looking into the abyss. Enter Puka Nacua. Since 1992, there have been three wide receivers to start their career with at least 25 targets in the first two weeks of their career:

• Terry Glenn: 26
• Anquan Boldin: 27
• Puka Nacua: 35

Nacua has the most receptions (25) to start a career of any wide receiver since 1992. His production is without precedent, and it is extremely difficult to fake elite production. Through two weeks, Nacua has run 87 routes, produced 3.06 yards per route run, and has been targeted on 40.2% of his routes. These are impossible to fake stats.

The question is natural about what will happen when Cooper Kupp returns. Tutu Atwell also ranks 7th pending Monday night football with 196 receiving yards. What looked like a weak offense suddenly looks like a robust set of skill position players.

Verdict: Will Nacua lead the league in reception? Probably unlikely. However, Nacua is here to stay.