NFC Notes: Puka Nacua, Desmond Ridder, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

• Oklahoma DL Jonah Laulu met with the 49ers at his pro day. (Justin Melo) 

Cardinals

New Cardinals QB Desmond Ridder was traded from Atlanta this offseason after the Falcons acquired QB Kirk Cousins in free agency. Ridder talked about what he hopes to get from his time in Arizona.

“One thing I wanna improve is just going out there playing free,” Ridder said, via ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss. “A lot of the times I felt like I was playing not to mess it up, not to screw it up. And so just to be able to go out there, play free, play loose, play within the system. And then there were a lot of good things that I did on film and then there were some bad things. It just happened to be that those bad things outweighed the good. There was a lot of the games where it was 90 percent good and 10 percent bad, and in those 10 percent, that just happened to be the determining factor of the game.”

• Arizona State LB Travion Brown will work out at the Cardinals’ local pro day, per Matt Lombardo.
• Penn State DE Chop Robinson has official 30 visits with nine teams, including the Cardinals. (MLFootball)

Rams

Former Rams DL Aaron Donald thinks WR Puka Nacua has a chance to be one of the best receivers in the NFL and is hoping the young standout can have a long career after showcasing what he can do during his rookie season.

“You see young guys that play and they fall off a little bit, but for him to stay as poised as he did through the whole season as far as, like, he became kind of a household name as a rookie and he didn’t change,” Donald said on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast. “He stayed the same person. He kept doing the same things every single week, bro, and it’s like if he stays like that and he stays hungry and if he wants to be great, in my opinion, I think he can do some things that [have] never been done in this league. He’s just got to keep working, but he was fun to watch. I really enjoyed watching him, all the awards he was able to surpass, and break records he was able to break as a rookie.”

“You see a little glimpse of it at camp, but that’s camp,” Donald added. “I’m one of those guys, you’ve got to show me during game time. … From the first game, he was just consistent. Then the Colts game, we ended up going into overtime, he ended up making the game-winning touchdown for us. He’s just been a consistent player since Day 1, and then he just got better and better and better. It’s like, God, I didn’t expect him to be, you know, the player he was this year. But in my opinion, to be honest with you, for any position, me personally watching, that’s probably one of the best rookie performances from any position that I got the opportunity to watch.”