49ers Warner: “He is going to earn that…double him, double him” in reference to Rams Nacua.
It is a fact about the NFL that college football players should be aware of: professional football players tend to make strange bedfellows. Conversely, it is also true that the NFL will not spare any football players because a teammate from college or your alma mater is on the other team. In head-to-head competition, former teammates typically play harder, so the opposite is probably true.
A recent incident involving NFL rivals, San Francisco 49ers ILB Fred Warner, exemplifies the tough love between them.
It was common knowledge that the Los Angeles Rams would only start rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua for a brief period of time in order to break the all-time records for rookie receiving yards in the NFL. The problem is that the 49ers secondary from San Francisco did too.
Upon meeting fellow BYU alumnus Puka Nacua on the football field at the end of the game, Fred Warner laughedly informed Nadua that the 49ers would make him work for every yard he gained.
“He is going to have to earn that—double him. Double that guy.
– Fred Warner Concerning Puka Nacua
Nobody seemed surprised, in my opinion, by the 49ers’ forceful coverage of Rams rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua. In hindsight, maybe the 49ers ought to have let Nacua finish the game and earn his record. In actuality, the 49ers doubled him during the whole contest.
It was all in vain. In addition to shattering the records, Nacua scored a touchdown in the first half. The 49ers secondary paid attention, but Nacua still caught four of six passes for 41 yards and a touchdown.
Maybe that is why Puka Nacua’s record-breaking season is so endearing. Throughout the course of his 17 games, he caught passes from three different quarterbacks. He accomplished all of this in just his first season in the NFL, and if he keeps going in the same direction as other Rams wide receivers, he will get even better by 2024. Much improved.
Allow the 49ers to cover Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua twice. Nacua dominated the 49ers in his first two games against them, hauling in 19 passes from 26 targets for 188 yards and a touchdown. In my opinion, Nacua poses no threat to the Los Angeles Rams when he plays football. However, I believe that the San Francisco 49ers and their supporters are only getting started with the headaches and the losses to the Los Angeles Rams.
