Rams WR Puka Nacua's ankle improved during the bye. He plays to return Sunday against the Saints

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Receiver Puka Nacua plans to return to the Los Angeles Rams' lineup Sunday against New Orleans after missing one game with an ankle injury.

Nacua took advantage of a serendipitous bye week to recover after rolling his ankle during the Rams' victory at Baltimore on Oct. 12. The star wideout missed the Rams' blowout victory over the Jaguars in London on Oct. 19.

Nacua returned to full practice with the Rams (5-2) on Thursday, and he is confident he'll play when they host the Saints (1-7) in their first home game in a month.

“There’s never a good time to be injured, but the bye did land at a great time to be able to rest and recover for this back half,” Nacua said. “I’m feeling fantastic. I feel ready to go.”

Nacua was leading the NFL in receptions and yards receiving when he rolled his ankle after going up for a contested catch against the Ravens. Nacua returned to the game, saying that he felt the injury was “just like getting the wind knocked out of me,” but eventually realized he was in more pain than that.

Despite missing parts of two games, Nacua is still third in the league with 54 receptions and fourth with 616 yards receiving.

Before the injury, Matthew Stafford had been targeting Nacua and Davante Adams on the large majority of the Rams' passing plays. Nacua's absence prompted Stafford to diversify in London, and 10 different Rams caught a pass against Jacksonville, including four tight ends.

“We’ve talked a lot about Puka and Davante getting — rightfully so — a lot of targets, but there are also places and opportunities for some of those (other) guys that can make plays,” coach Sean McVay said. “Our tight ends, it was great to get them involved. These are ... champagne problems for us as coaches.”

Adams was still Stafford's favorite target, and he responded with three touchdown catches at Wembley. Only Detroit's Amon-Ra St. Brown and Philadelphia's Dallas Goedert have more TD receptions this season than Adams' six.

Adams still sees room for improvement in the Rams' third-ranked passing game and in his connection with Stafford.

“I think that we haven’t been able to truly maximize it just because of missing time with Matthew in camp and still trying to get on the same page,” Adams said. "Me dealing with the hamstring, I wasn’t necessarily practicing every day before. ... Overall, I don’t think anybody’s disappointed. Me being who I am and Matthew being who he is and just having the team that we do, my expectations are really high, and standards are really high for what I should bring and what this team should be able to do. I’m definitely not satisfied with what we’ve done, but happy with where we are.”

Nacua loved to see the prolific performance in London by Adams, who has been one of his idols for years — but he also saw a downside.

“It was a little painful, because we've been working on some handshakes, and I'm like, ‘Oh, I can’t run out there and meet you in the end zone (to celebrate), as I would normally expect to,'" Nacua said. “But it was just super-exciting, because we see the stuff in practice, some of the catches he makes, and it's great to see it finally come to fruition on Sundays.”

The Rams will face the Saints without receiver Tutu Atwell, who went on injured reserve with a hamstring issue. Atwell has only four catches for the Rams, but he remains a big-play threat who stretches the field as their speediest receiver.

Stafford isn't worried about making up for Atwell's threat.

“Yes, he runs faster than I do, but he’s got a whole lot of other skills too that are valuable to our team,” Stafford said with a laugh. "Obviously you miss a guy like him with his ability to do some of the things that he’s able to do, but we’ll find ways to be effective and explosive.”

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