The official NFL account posted a crisp countdown Sunday night that instantly had film junkies and fantasy managers hitting replay. “The 10 best routes from the 2025 season” landed with 113,000 views in the first few hours and sparked the usual healthy debate in the replies. One name dominated the conversation: Puka Nacua. The Rams receiver grabbed two spots on the list, including the No. 2 route that left a Seahawks cornerback reaching at air.
Route running rarely gets the highlight treatment long touchdowns or vicious hits receive, yet this video proved why the best separators in the league are worth studying frame by frame. The plays chosen weren’t just about yards after catch. They were about the moment the receiver won before the ball even arrived.
The No. 2 Route: Nacua vs. Woolen
At the No. 2 spot sits a play that felt ripped from a coaching clinic. Puka Nacua, wearing the familiar blue and yellow, faces off against Seattle’s Tariq Woolen. The stem looks standard at first. Then Nacua plants, sells the outside release with his shoulders, and snaps the route back inside with violent precision. Woolen bites. Hard. By the time the corner recovers, Nacua has already created the throwing window.
Watch the defender’s arm shoot up a split second too late. That tiny hesitation is the entire difference between a contested catch and an easy pitch-and-catch. Nacua didn’t just run fast. He won the leverage battle at the line and then attacked the defender’s technique. That’s what separates the good from the great at the position.
The clip came from a high-stakes FOX broadcast, the kind of game where one broken route can swing momentum. Nacua turned that moment into art.
Why Nacua Dominated the 2025 Route Conversation
Nacua’s 2025 campaign featured multiple explosions against Seattle. In the regular-season Week 16 meeting he torched the secondary for 12 catches, 225 yards, and two touchdowns. The playoff rematch in late January produced another 165 yards. Those numbers don’t happen by accident. They happen when a receiver forces defenses to respect every inch of the field.
The 10 best routes from the 2025 season 👀 pic.twitter.com/bUWhMQ0yxb
— NFL (@NFL) July 5, 2026
What stood out in the countdown video was how often Nacua’s routes looked simple on the surface and devastating in real time. The No. 6 spot also belonged to him, underlining just how consistently he won in 2025. While other receivers flashed one or two highlight routes, Nacua strung together an entire body of work that demanded attention from every defensive coordinator in the league.
The Bigger Picture Behind the List
The full video mixes plays from across the league. Fans spotted entries from Ladd McConkey, Travis Kelce, Tutu Atwell, and a surprise No. 1 that had Steelers fans celebrating. The common thread wasn’t raw speed. It was the ability to manipulate leverage, change pace, and force defenders to declare their intentions early.
Double moves appeared frequently. So did option stems that gave quarterbacks multiple answers depending on how the coverage reacted. In today’s NFL, where secondaries play more zone and quarterbacks operate from clean pockets less often, those subtle details decide games.
Route running remains the quiet craft that offensive coordinators obsess over in the offseason. This video served as a reminder that the prettiest plays often start with a receiver winning a one-on-one battle three yards off the line of scrimmage.
What This Means Heading Into 2026
Training camps are weeks away. Defensive backs will spend part of their summer watching this exact compilation on their tablets. They’ll slow down Nacua’s plant foot. They’ll study how Woolen got caught leaning. They’ll try to find the counter for the same moves that worked so cleanly in 2025.
That’s the real value of lists like this. They don’t just entertain. They become teaching tape for the next cycle of players trying to climb the same mountain.
For Nacua, the recognition lands at the perfect time. He has already established himself as one of the league’s most reliable targets. Adding multiple “best route” nods only reinforces what quarterbacks already know: give him a clean release and he’ll find a way to get open.
The 2025 season gave us plenty of highlight-reel moments. The NFL’s decision to shine a light on the route-running craft felt like a quiet acknowledgment that the little things still matter most.
