3 wide receivers who could be this year's Puka Nacua for fantasy football

Anytime the fantasy football world has a player like Puka Nacua come along, the search is going to be on for the next one. After all, only one player in your league has the chance to have Puka on their roster.

In any NFL draft, there are going to be great players found in the later rounds, those who have flown under the radar and those who just outperform their draft status. Last year, Puka Nacua was drafted in the fifth round out of BYU by the Los Angeles Rams.

There was very little thought given to this pick, even by those players in deep dynasty leagues. Nacua never caught more than 48 passes in a season during his college career. He was going to a Rams team that had Cooper Kupp who not long ago put together one of the best seasons a wide receiver ever had. So, he was an afterthought.

Not anymore. After catching 105 passes for 1,486 yards (both all-time rookie records) and six touchdowns, he is one of the top wide receivers in the league. In fact, he will likely go ahead of Kupp in redraft leagues this summer and in dynasty leagues, he is the much more valuable player. Who would have predicted that?

So, looking at the 2024 NFL draft class, which is loaded at the wide receiver position, who are some prospects who could repeat what Nacua did this coming season?

3 wide receivers who could be this year’s Puka Nacua for fantasy football

Nov 27, 2021; Huntington, West Virginia, USA; Western Kentucky Hilltoppers wide receiver Malachi scores a touchdown against West Virginia. | Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Malachi Corley, Western Kentucky

Malachi Corley is a great first option for this list because many teams and fantasy football players may immediately scoff at him due to the fact that he played at Western Kentucky in college. But that would be a big mistake.

He stands 5-foot-11 so he will also fall off the draft boards of several teams because he lacks height. But at Western Kentucky, he showed plenty of NFL traits. He caught 101 passes in 2022 and scored 11 touchdowns in each of his final two seasons at the school.

He should go in the middle of this draft, perhaps as early as the third round and if he ends up in the right spot, could be a tremendous addition to your fantasy roster, particularly in dynasty leagues.

Rice v Arkansas | Wesley Hitt/GettyImages

Luke McCaffrey, Rice

Sometimes, you can’t ignore a player’s bloodline. Luke McCaffrey is a talented wide receiver and though he’s not going to get the fantasy football hype that his older brother Christian does, he fits this list incredibly well.

When you look back to his father, Ed McCaffrey’s playing days, he was similar to Nacua. He came out of nowhere as a third-round pick in 1991. He never had incredible speed of insane athleticism but he just knew how to get open, particularly in the middle of the field. We saw that out of Nacua on a regular basis this past season.

Luke’s college career looked like it was going in the wrong direction while he was at Nebraska, but a transfer to Rice opened things up for him. In the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Owls, he hauled in 129 receptions for 1,715 yards and 19 touchdowns after being converted from quarterback into a wide receiver.

His is a name that is slowly starting to rise up draft boards as well. Once seen as a late-round pick or potentially an undrafted player, McCaffrey is being mocked as high as the third round right now. If he can follow in his father’s footsteps at the wide receiver position, he could be a sneaky addition for fantasy players this coming season.

Louisville’s Jamari Thrash scores a touchdown against Notre Dame . | Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA

Jamari Thrash, Louisville

Jamari Thrash spent four seasons at Georgia State and after a terrific 2022 season with the Panthers, decided to use his last year of eligibility and transfer to Louisville. Against tougher competition, he caught 63 passes for 863 yards and six touchdowns, numbers comparable to what Nacua put up in his final college season.

Thrash is on the smaller side at 6-foot-0 and 188 pounds, but he is a guy teams should not completely overlook. He is a tough receiver over the middle and has legitimate 4.4 speed (he ran a 4.46 40-yard dash at the combine).

He can line up all over the formation but I see him as a terrific option out of the slot at the next level. This is a guy who could come to a team with a thin depth chart at wide receiver, somewhere such as Buffalo or Baltimore and become exactly what Nacua became for the Rams.

The NFL draft is less than two weeks away, which means fantasy football drafts, especially dynasty rookie drafts, will also be ramping up soon. Get to know these guys and get your hands on them this coming season.

This article was originally published on fantasycpr.com as 3 wide receivers who could be this year’s Puka Nacua for fantasy football .