RENTON — If coach Liam Coen puts together an offensive scheme Sunday that leads the Jacksonville Jaguars to a win over the Seahawks, the Seahawks may have one of their own to partially blame — receiver Cooper Kupp.
The 39-year-old Coen, who is in his first season as head coach of the Jaguars, cites his time working with Kupp and the Los Angeles Rams from 2018-20 and again in 2022 as among the most influential stretches of his career.
How close did the two become during that time?
“Man, Cooper — I almost named my son Cooper,” Coen told media Wednesday in Jacksonville. “So yeah — that’s how much respect I have for him. He has sent me texts throughout my career, whether I was with the Rams, at Kentucky, in Tampa or here, randomly at different points of just ‘thinking about you,’ ‘hope you’re doing great,’ ‘proud of you.’ Definitely more than just a player-coach relationship.”
It was a relationship that began when Coen was hired as assistant receivers coach with the Rams in 2018, his first NFL job of any kind after he had worked from 2010-17 in various offensive coaching roles at Brown, Rhode Island, Maine and UMass, his alma mater where he played quarterback from 2004-08.
“He sat right next to me in the receivers room,’’ said Kupp, who arrived in L.A. in 2017. “As the assistant receivers coach his role was to come in super, super early in the morning, draw the pictures, help with some of the pass game stuff. But he was there a long time, so by the time the 5 (p.m.), 5:30 (p.m.) meetings would come around he’d start getting the droopy eyes during our meetings so I was always giving him the little elbows like ‘Liam, Liam, you’ve got to stay up!’
“So it’s really cool seeing what he’s doing now and seeing that growth through the eight years. It’s pretty impressive.”
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Coen rose to assistant quarterbacks coach with the Rams in 2020, left for a year to serve as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator, returned as LA..’s offensive coordinator in 2022, went back to Kentucky in 2023 as offensive coordinator and spent last season as the OC at Tampa Bay, given ample credit for helping continue the revival of Baker Mayfield’s career.
That path landed him the Jaguars job on Jan. 24 after the team fired Doug Pederson following a 22-29 record in three seasons in Jacksonville.
The Jags hired Coen hoping he can help quarterback Trevor Lawrence pull off the same kind of midcareer revival as has Mayfield.
Like Mayfield, Lawrence is a former No. 1 overall pick (2021) whose early career hasn’t gone to planned.
But the initial returns on the Coen-Lawrence marriage are promising as the Jaguars are off to a 4-1 start after an upset Monday night of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Lawrence’s numbers aren’t markedly different from his first four seasons — he has a six-to-five touchdown-to-interception ratio and a passer rating of 78.2 lower than his career mark of 84.5. But Lawrence has also already led two game-winning drives, including Monday night, tied for the most he has in any season.
“I definitely wouldn’t say I’m surprised by it,” Kupp said. “I think Liam is an incredibly smart football coach, so I’m super pumped for him as he steps into this role.’’
Kupp said he could tell quickly that Coen might be destined for a rapid rise, saying he had a particularly good knack for breaking down the game as a quarterback would see it on the field, which Kupp said was particularly helpful to the rest of the offense.
Coen this week repaid the compliment.
“He’s (Kupp) the smartest football player, him and (Rams quarterback) Matthew (Stafford), that I’ve ever really truly worked with for an extended period of time,” Coen said. “I’ve obviously worked with a lot of really good pros, but I can’t say enough good things about Cooper and the type of man that he is.”
Coen went on to say of Kupp and Stafford that, “I learned so much more from them than I think I probably ever could have given them as a coach.”
Coen has two sons, named Jackson and Callahan, so far resisting the urge to name a child Cooper.
“Yeah, I knew that,” Kupp said with a smile when asked about Coen’s statement this week that he almost named his son Cooper. “We talked about that a little bit when he was in L.A.”
They’ll reunite Sunday, when Kupp will hope he didn’t help Coen learn a bit too much.
Injury report: Love, Witherspoon, Hall, Jones sit out
The Seahawks listed four players as sitting out of practice Thursday because of injury, including cornerback Devon Witherspoon (knee) and safety Julian Love (hamstring).
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Coach Mike Macdonald indicated earlier in the week that the team hopes each may be able to return for the Jags game after sitting out of Sunday’s 38-35 loss to Tampa Bay.
Also out were offensive lineman Josh Jones (ankle), who Macdonald said Wednesday will not play this week, and rush end Derick Hall, who Macdonald called “week-to-week,” indicating he likely won’t play against Jacksonville.
The Seahawks will release a game status report Friday before the team leaves for Jacksonville that will shed more light on the changes of Love and Witherspoon playing.
The news was better about a few other players, notably defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. He was listed as a full participant after sitting out the Tampa Bay game with a quad injury and also being DNP on Wednesday.
Safety Nick Emmanwori (ankle) was also a full participant after sitting out Wednesday, while linebacker Ernest Jones IV (shoulder) was limited after being a DNP on Wednesday. And defensive tackle Jarran Reed, who sat out Wednesday as a rest day, was again a full participant.
Cornerback Riq Woolen, who is in the concussion protocol, was again limited.
Seahawks swap Cody White for Pili on 53-man roster
The Seahawks made one roster move Thursday, signing nose tackle Brandon Pili off the practice squad to the 53-man roster. They created room on the 53-man roster by releasing receiver Cody White. They re-signed White to the practice squad to fill Pili’s spot.
The Seahawks made the move because Pili had already been elevated the maximum three times off the practice squad this year to play in games. That meant he had to be signed to the 53-man roster to play any more games.
Pili has two tackles for the season playing in the interior defensive line rotation against the Steelers, Arizona and Tampa Bay.
White was inactive the last two weeks as the Seahawks has a full complement of receivers healthy.
Without needing to spend an elevation on a defensive lineman, the Seahawks may have to use their two practice squad elevations for this week on secondary players, depending on the availability of the likes of Love, Witherspoon and Woolen.
The Seahawks could elevate the likes of cornerback Shaquill Griffin and safety Jerrick Reed II.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.