Cooper Kupp is an All-Pro. A veteran. But he’s new.
Uchenna Nwosu has become a Seahawks mainstay. Some of his best football moments, the ones that got him $32 million guaranteed two years ago, are in his number 10.
So how was Kupp showing off his new Seahawks number 10 at team headquarters Tuesday?
How did the Super Bowl 56 MVP with his now-former Los Angeles Rams get number 10 from Nwosu, Seattle’s key linebacker, upon Kupp signing his three-year free-agent contract with the Seahawks Tuesday morning?
“He’s got a foundation that’s doing from really good stuff here in the community,” Kupp 31, said of the Uchenna Nwosu Foundation. “It was important for him to have that be a part of this change. And he was great to work with.
“I was able to donate to his foundation, and make sure that he felt good about that.”
Nwosu, 28, was number 42 at USC. He was number 42 in his first four NFL seasons playing for the Los Angeles Chargers, who drafted him in the second round in 2018.
He changed to 10 upon then-coach Pete Carroll, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks signing him before the 2022 season. That’s the year he had a career-high 9 1/2 sacks debuting for Seattle.
The Seahawks rewarded Nwosu after that season with a three-year extension worth a maximum of $59 million with the $32 million guaranteed. He’s coming off a 2024 season in which he was on injured reserve twice and played in only six of 17 games for new head coach Mike Macdonald.
“He mentioned he’s played his best football in number 10, and it had been important to him,” Kupp said. “Just his time in Seattle, and clearly the community was an important part of this whole thing.
“I respect his desires there.”
Kupp, born and raised in Yakima, has worn 10 since he was starring at Eastern Washington University 10 years ago. He won the Walter Payton Award there as the best college player in the country at the Football Championship Subdivision before the Rams selected him in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft.
Kupp wore number 1 at Davis High School in Yakima, when he was a small running back with tiny legs and dreams soon dashed of being a running back at USC.
Now he’s back in number 10, back in Washington with his home-state Seahawks in what he called a “full-circle moment.”
Thanks to Nwosu. And to Kupp giving to the linebacker’s efforts to aid people in his foundation’s self-described missions of “education and health and wellness to sports-minded individuals” in Seattle and his native Carson, California, just outside Los Angeles.
“We were able to work it out,” Kupp said. “I’m really thankful for him being able to work something out for us.”