To the victors go the spoils.
And for Rams wide receiver, that means coming up short on his bid to win the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award.
Instead, that honor went to Seahawks wide receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba, who nudged out Nacua, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, and Falcons running back Bijan Robinson for the award Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony.
Nacua had an NFL-high league 129 receptions, and finished second in the NFL with 1,715 receiving yards in 2025. He added 11 touchdowns while finishing first in the NFL with 729 yards after the catch and 24 contested receptions.
The performance was good enough to earn Nacua the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award from Pro Football Focus as well as first-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-NFL first-team honors.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome Smith-Njigba, who enjoyed a breakout year in his second NFL season with 119 catches for a league-best 1,793 yards. He also added 10 touchdowns.
Smith-Njigba also got the edge in team success, with the Seahawks beating the Rams in Week 16 to lay claim to first place in the NFC West, and again in the NFC Championship game in Seattle to advance to Super Bowl 60.
Maybe it would have been different had the Rams prevailed. Certainly Nacua did enough to firmly plant himself in the conversation. His 129 catches are the seventh-most in NFL history and the 1,7,15 receiving yards are the 14th-most of all-time.
Nacua did all that while missing one game and significant time in two other games while battling an injury.
Smith-Njigba, though, had a breakout season while teaming with Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold on an offense that finished third in the NFL to power an unlikely regular-season and postseason run to the Super Bowl.
Nacua and Smith-Njigba were part of the same 2023 draft class.
“I mean man, it has been fun to watch him play this season,” Nacua said recently. “And obviously I know we were both in the same draft class, so I think like man, the boys of 23 were pretty good.” Nacua then recognizing his teammates adding, “but I’m excited and confident in our guys, because I know the challenge that they step up to every weekend, they’re never shying away from the opportunity to go out there and make big plays. So it’ll be fun to see how we do.”
