How Does Cooper Kupp Always Get the Ball?
The New York Times
The Rams receiver is quarterback Matthew Stafford’s favorite target. Despite knowing that, opponents could not prevent the pair from connecting at a blistering rate this season.
LOS ANGELES — Nick Edwards knows the Los Angeles Rams’ Cooper Kupp not as the most efficient receiving threat in the N.F.L., but as the scrawny, overlooked freshman at Eastern Washington who was obsessed with eating eggs to add muscle mass.
Edwards, now the offensive coordinator at California Polytechnic State University, was Kupp’s teammate at Eastern Washington as a senior in 2012 while Kupp was a redshirt freshman. Two years later, Edwards returned as Kupp’s position coach. From afar, he has watched Kupp, a third-round draft pick in 2017, develop into a masterful route runner, a sure-handed catcher and a skillful blocker.
His improvement, attention to detail, along with catching passes from a new quarterback, Matthew Stafford, propelled Kupp to an outstanding 2021 season. He led the league in the major receiving categories, posting 145 catches for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. Only three other receivers since 1970 — Steve Smith, Jerry Rice and Sterling Sharpe — have achieved that feat. He fell just 18 yards short of breaking Calvin Johnson’s record for most receiving yards in a single season.
