How exacting is Cooper Kupp?
The veteran wide receiver, the 2021 NFL offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP, is in his ninth training camp in the league. He’s played in 104 regular-season games, 17 playoff games and one Super Bowl in his career.
Yet was still lamenting, four days later, a missed block. Sixteen yards down the field. In a preseason game.
“Honestly, if I handle business on the first play of the game and get up on to the post safety, Charbs might break that thing for a touchdown right out of the gate, which would’ve been pretty cool,” Kupp said Tuesday, of Zach Charbonnet’s 13-yard run on the first play of the Seahawks’ preseason game Friday night against Kansas City.
That safety Kupp didn’t block, Chamarri Conner, tackled Charbonnet in the open field.
How curious is Kupp, still, at age 32?
He goes to the quarterbacks meetings that new starter Sam Darnold, veteran backup Drew Lock and rookie Jalen Milroe have each day with new Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and new QBs coach Andrew Janocko.
“I try to be in as many of their meetings as I can,” Kupp said. “It’s just great to hear what the thinking is that’s happening in that room.”
A Yakima native and son of former Pacific Lutheran Loggers NAIA Division-II record-setting quarterback Craig Kupp, Cooper Kupp says sitting in QB meetings exposes him to the details his passer is looking at away from where Kupp is running his pass route. He says he better learns where the quarterback starts his progression of reading the defense’s coverage, depending on where the, say, safety is positioned at the snap. Kupp learns in these meetings the defense’s looks that are likely to force his QB to break off his progression read sooner than scripted.
“It gives you the ability of (thinking), ‘Man, how can I be in the right spots for the quarterback when he needs me there?’” Kupp said.
“There’s just next-level stuff that can come out of (the quarterbacks’ meetings). You’re hearing what he’s thinking, what he’s being taught, how his mind works, and how that can translate to being a problem-solver, when it comes down to it.”
Kupp said he’s been sitting with quarterbacks in their meetings since he was the 2013 Jerry Rice Award winner as the best freshman in the nation at the Football Championship Subdivision at Eastern Washington and the 2016 Walter Payton Award winner as the best player in the FCS.
“As much as I could (at Eastern),” Kupp said. “It’s tough, you know, because you’ve got classes.
“I took golf, and that was really important. I had to get to that golf class. …
“I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.”
Kupp, Darnold and the starting offense played one series Friday night against the Chiefs. It was a flawless one. The Seahawks steamrolled 81 yards in 10 plays to Charbonnet’s 15-yard touchdown run.
Kupp said it was “maybe the second, or third” preseason game he’s played in his nine NFL years. He just about never did with the Rams. Even from early in Kupp’s career, coach Sean McVay had his third-round pick in the 2017 draft watching exhibitions.
Kupp and the Seahawks are headed to Green Bay Wednesday for what Seattle coach Mike Macdonald considers a practice more important for his veterans than the final preseason game in Wisconsin Saturday: a joint practice against the Packers Thursday on the fields next to Lambeau Field.
Kupp had many joint practices when he was with the Rams from 2017 until this spring, when L.A. released him because of his recent injuries and the Seahawks brought him home with a three-year, $45 million contract in free agency.
He likes joint practices far more than preseason games, for their value.
“It’s an opportunity to see different techniques, different coverages,” he said. “Obviously, the competitiveness, it’s just…it’s just different. …It’s just a different body across the line of scrimmage from you.
“It’s good to have those opportunities, see some different things. Try some things out against different looks.
“It’ll be a good, competitive day.”
Kenneth Walker practices fully
The 21st practice of the preseason Tuesday was in shells, not pads, and helmets.
It was notable for Kenneth Walker being full go for the second consecutive practice. That was for one of the only times since the first days of training camp in late July.
This time came sandwiched around an unscheduled players’ off day from practice Monday, when Macdonald took the team to Topgolf instead.
Walker played with Darnold, Kupp and the first-team offense in 11-on-11 scrimmaging. He’d been on a day-on, day-off schedule late in training camp. In early August, a sore foot sidelined the lead running back.
He missed six of 17 games last season. He went on injured reserve in December with an ankle issue.
Macdonald has said the Seahawks have “a plan” for Walker to be ready for the opening game Sept. 7 against San Francisco, “and we’re sticking to that plan.”
We’ll see Thursday if that plan includes Walker scrimmaging against the Packers. It’s expected to be starters versus starters in what will likely be the final tune-up for regulars against another team before roster cut-down day from 90 to 53 players Tuesday, and then the games get real.
Sundell makes case for center job
Also noteworthy from practice Tuesday: Jalen Sundell was again the starting center.
Olu Oluwatimi was the second center for Lock and the backups on offense.
Sundell has started each of the first two preseason games. Oluwatimi was starting until he injured his back early this month.
Sundell impressed Macdonald, Kubiak and new line coach John Benton against Kansas City with his athleticism and speed off the snap. He deftly snapped the ball, hooked linebackers on the second level, and even blocked defensive backs at the point of attack on the third level.
Who starts at center Thursday in the practice with Green Bay will go a long way to telling who starts against the 49ers in week one.
It’s tough to envision the coaches benching a center who has anchored a revived starting line that plowed the paths to Seattle’s 119 yards rushing in the first quarter against the Chiefs, and 8.7 yards per rush in 1 1/2 quarters of play this season.
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