Veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp, from Yakima and Eastern Washington University, talks on Sept. 3, 2025, at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton on how he's been advising his new Seattle Seahawks coaches about what's worked for him in his NFL years with the Los Angeles Rams. By Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
Cooper Kupp wears the shirt his coach made. And preaches.
His T-shirt: CHASING EDGES, in Seahawks gray, blue and green.
Wide receiver Cooper Kupp talks to reporters at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, before the Seahawks’ practice for their NFL opening game against the San Francisco 49ers four days later. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
It fits. Seattle’s new, coming-home wide receiver is one of the team’s chief edge chasers. Coach Mike “Chasing Edges” Macdonald has made changes to how the Seahawks operate for his second season in charge. Changes to how the players and coaches practice. Changes to how they travel to road games. Changes to how they warm up before games. Even changes to how the players eat.
Kupp’s been a catalyst for some of that change. Since he signed a three-year, $45 million free-agent contract in March, the Yakima native, 2021 NFL offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP for the Los Angeles Rams has been advising Macdonald and the Seahawks’ new offensive staff.
At times, Kupp has challenged Macdonald and new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. He’s asked them why they do what they’ve done. He has asked them: Why not change to what Kupp’s had work winning in Super Bowl with the Rams over his first eight NFL seasons?
Macdonald has been all for it.
The innovative coach wouldn’t be true to his chasing-edges mantra if he wasn’t seeking them, first.
The 37-year-old Macdonald was asked Wednesday what the 32-year-old wide receiver and former Eastern Washington University star has already brought to the Seahawks, four days before his first game for them, the opener against the San Francisco 49ers at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m. Sunday, FOX television, channel 13 locally).
“Credibility,” Macdonald said.
He said Kupp is obviously a great player.
“(But) probably the unspoken thing is, he’s been around the block, and he’s seen it done at a high level. He’s independent thinker,” Macdonald said. “I just love that mentality of, ‘Hey, I know we do it like this, but why?’ Or we tweak it. Or ‘We could make this little better. I’ve seen it like this and so.’
“But it’s always coming through the lens of respect and trying to do it the best way. And I think as a coach, if you have the same mentality, you can come up with some really great solutions. And I feel like we’ve done that several times since he’s been here.
“He’s been an asset to me. He’s been an asset to Klint. He’s been an asset to our offense. And he’s been an asset to our football team.”
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) walk off after training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday, July 25, 2025, in Renton, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Mike Macdonald’s changes for 2025
Macdonald learned from winning 10 games last season yet missing the playoffs in his first year as a head coach at any level last year with the Seahawks.
One primary takeaway from 2024: His team needs to start games faster, be better.
Opponents outscored Seattle 82-67 in the first quarter last season. It was the first time the Seahawks were out-scored in an opening quarter over a season since 2019. They were chasing too many games last year.
So Macdonald and a staff of team analysts spent some of this offseason critiquing how the Seahawks prepare in the final days then warm up on game days immediately before kickoff.
“We’ve done studies on other sports, and studies about high performance and what allows you to be at your best as soon as possible,” Macdonald said Wednesday. “Those are the things that went into those decisions.”
The Seahawks studied the pregame routines of the most successful NBA teams. What they found was the best pro basketball teams had shorter, more intense pregame warmups than their competition.
So Macdonald is doing shorter, more intense pregame warmups this Seahawks season.
Seattle was out onto the field in full pads after its opponents took the field in their preseason games. The Seahawks did shorter individual position drills pregame. They did run-throughs of plays with their starting offense and defense sooner after taking the field than they did last season. And they left to go back into the locker room before their foes.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jalen Milroe (6) warms up before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Lumen Field, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Seattle, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Macdonald is also trying to get their game plans clearer and out to players earlier in each game week this season. He wants them to understand the “commander’s intent,” as he likes to call it, many days before a game, to know the why for the game plan, so they can spend the bulk of the week believing in then practicing and perfecting the plan.
“We spent a lot of time studying it. We’re tweakers. We’re always trying to figure out what’s the best way to do stuff,” Macdonald said.
“We’re tweaking our away schedule, too.”
That will begin next week, when the Seahawks play at Pittsburgh in week two. The head “tweaker” is changing up team travel ways even though the Seahawks tied a team record last season by going 7-1 on the road. They missed the playoffs because they were 3-6 at home in 2024.
“We’ve got to win at home,” veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. “Point blank. Period.”
This week, for the opener at home where they vow to improve, Macdonald is going to have the Seahawks...eat more?
“We’ve looked at our home operation from Friday to Sunday. Something as different as like, ‘How do we get the guys to eat more frequently? How can we help control that?’” Macondald said.
“We’re looking at everything. There’s stuff that we’ve changed. But it’s not wholesale shifts. I say moving and shaking all the time about, ‘Hey, what’s the best for us and this team?’ We’re making those decisions all the time — especially at home.”
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald talks with players as they warm up during training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday, July 25, 2025, in Renton, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Cooper Kupp’s changes
Kupp did it one way for eight years with the Rams and their young, whiz coach coach Sean McVay. McVay drafted Kupp his first months as a head coach, in the spring of 2017.
And it worked, for Kupp, McVay and the Rams. Kupp became a league player of the year, Super Bowl MVP and a $105 million wide receiver doing it McVay’s way.
Months into being a Seahawk, Kupp credits Macdonald, Kubiak and Seattle’s coaches for being receptive to and often soliciting the players’ views on how to operate this season.
Many see how young the Seahawks are with Pro Bowl players Devon Witherspoon (24 years old) and Jaxon Smith-Njigba (23). Yet Seattle also has starters such as Kupp, 33-year-old defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence in from 11 seasons with Dallas, 33-year-old nose tackle Johnathan Hankins and 34-year-old kicker Jason Myers. Reed is 32 entering his 10th season. Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams and new tight end Eric Saubert are 31, with a combined 19 seasons in the NFL before this one.
“There are a lot of guys that have played a lot of football,” Kupp said. “We have coaches who want the best for the guys that sit in this room and are in this building. When you have coaches that want that, they are going to ask questions and be open to things.”
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) walks out during training camp at Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday, July 25, 2025, in Renton, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
Kupp said of coaches, and players: “The worst you can do is feel like you have everything figured out.”
“I have so much respect for Mike, because he is open,” Kupp said. “He is like ‘I just want what’s best for our team, and whatever that looks like, let’s make that happen.’
“Him having an open-door policy where guys can come in and talk to him, and also, them being able to search out and find ways, find little edges for us...I am really appreciative of that.”
What specifically has Kupp suggested and advised Macdonald and Kubiak that they are incorporating for this season that begins Sunday against the hated 49ers Seattle’s lost to six times in the last seven meetings?
Kupp’s been a pro too long to answer that. “Not a chance,” he said. “Not a chance.”
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) rides a bicycle to a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers on Thursday, August 21, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Tork Mason USA TODAY NETWORK