For the first time in his career, one of the newest Seattle Seahawks' - wide receiver Cooper Kupp - is participating in an Organized Team Activities session with a new team. Kupp, who signed with the Seahawks in March, is playing on only the second team in this league, after spending every season up to this point with the Los Angeles Rams.
The first of Seattle's nine OTA practices began on Tuesday, and the MVP of Super Bowl LVI spoke to the media about his new experience. This was first reported by John Boyle of Seahawks.com. Kupp said:
"It felt good. Everyone's learning a new offense, coming in after a few weeks, and it's the first time running against people, it's always different—you can run things on air all the time, but there's nothing like getting out there, 11 on 11, thinking fast and making decisions and all that. The energy was great, guys are excited, and that's all you can ask for on Day 1."
Despite Kupp playing in a similar style of offense as Klint Kubiak's, he's still going to have to learn a new system. One way for him to do so is to lean on his new quarterback, Sam Darnold. In 2023, Darnold spent a year with the San Francisco 49ers, and Kubiak was on staff as the Niners' passing game coordinator. Darnold does have a key understanding of what Kubiak's offense looks like and what he is trying to accomplish in Seattle.
According to Kupp, Darnold has been "awesome" at helping him get up to speed.
"The insights that he (Darnold) shares and the confidence he has in being able to say, 'Hey, these are the things that have worked in this offense' in terms of how we've operated and how he's operated, and being able to collaborate together and figure out what that looks like for us as we put this team together—this skill group, this offensive line, this quarterback group, as we get together and figure out what we're going to be about, to be able to have that collaborative talking, it's been really good."
This is also why I find it difficult to imagine Jalen Milroe will end up winning the starting quarterback spot at any point this year, save for injuries to Darnold or a complete meltdown from him. Darnold has several legs up on Milroe in terms of experience and familiarity with Kubiak's system. No. 14 is going to take the reigns in 2025. Will it remain as such next season? Who's to say... but for now, this is Darnold's team.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks offseason: WR Cooper Kupp discusses first day of OTA practice
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