An interview my co-host Michael Bumpus and I had last week with Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp ended up going viral, which is unfortunate because my hair looks awful. More importantly, though, I think it’s fun to look at why exactly Kupp’s answer about how NFL defenses have evolved resonated with thousands of people.
Wyman: How Seattle Seahawks practices differ under Macdonald
Short answer? In my opinion as a host, authentic excitement from a subject is pretty contagious and tends to hook people. But a better, longer answer is this: Kupp is being very candid about a topic he’s passionate about, and it just so happens to be about one of the best parts about football — it’s constantly evolving and changing. It’s a chess match with individual victories but no real end. There are new ideas that blossom from decades old roots and in turn shape the league; a Shanahan-Kubiak system borne of a variation of the West Coast offense, or Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay’s modernized and ever-evolving versions (Benjamin Solak has a great write-up on that one).
Even better is that Kupp’s insight is a first-hand perspective. This was a starting wide receiver on a team that, particularly from 2017 onward, helped reshape NFL offenses and defenses. That’s just very, very cool.
Another aspect to this though is a level of transparency and vulnerability.
“Late in 2018,” Kupp said, “there was some stuff that showed they could stop this offense a bit.”
Yeah, they did. The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen has a really cool breakdown with some film (which I highly recommend watching) so you can see how Vic Fangio’s Chicago Bears used a 6-1 front to stymie the Rams’ outside zone. They held LA to just six points that week. Belichick used a similar approach (that 6-1 front to challenge the Rams’ rushing game and two-high looks) to hold McVay’s offense, which had averaged over 30 points per game, to just a field goal in Super Bowl LIII. Very related: there’s a great, separate story from The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan about Belichick scrapping his entire gameplan days before the Super Bowl, all but abandoning man-to-man calls, and relying on cornerback Jonathan Jones’ flexibility for quarters coverage.
Football fans don’t just want to hear about a plan that worked. They want to hear how the plan eventually failed — and find out what happened next.
That’s what Kupp’s talking about here. A simple question about whether defenses have become harder to face (whether by mismatches or motion or myriad of creative twists) turned into an answer about the back-and-forth sparring that happens between the league’s best play-callers.
With one of those defensive play-callers now here as a head coach in Seattle, you have to wonder what comes next…
Watch the conversation with Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp in the video at the top of this post, or listen to the audio player in the article. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Seattle Sports.
More on the Seattle Seahawks
• Wyman: How Seattle Seahawks’ new offense puts stress on linebackers
• 5 takeaways from Seahawks’ OTA and minicamp practices
• What Charles Cross said about extension talks with Seattle Seahawks
• The next step for Seattle Seahawks DT Byron Murphy II in Year 2
• Former Seahawks WR: Rookie TE Elijah Arroyo ‘just blew me away’