SEATTLE – There hasn’t always been a bidding war for Cooper Kupp.
When he joined the Davis High School football team as a freshman in 2008, the diminutive wide receiver was 5 feet 4 and 119 pounds. Despite compiling 110 catches and 2,100 receiving yards as a three-year starter, including a school-record 22 touchdowns in his senior season, the state’s Pac-12 programs didn’t call.
“I wasn’t very fast or strong,” the Yakima native told The Seattle Times in 2019. “I didn’t really have anything crazy that flashed, I guess. I just loved football, and I knew how to play it well. But athletically there wasn’t a whole lot there.”
That’s despite Kupp’s considerable athletic lineage. His grandfather, Jake Kupp, was an offensive lineman at Washington who played in the NFL from 1964-75. Cooper’s father, Craig, was a standout quarterback at Pacific Lutheran University who made a brief cameo in the NFL. Craig’s wife and Cooper’s mother, Karin, played soccer at PLU, and her father — Tom Gilmer — was a prolific PLU QB and punter. Craig Kupp, Karin Kupp and Tom Gilmer all reside in the PLU Athletics Hall of Fame.
Which makes this partnership all the more appropriate. After the Rams released Kupp this week, the 31-year-old receiver will sign a reported three-year, $45 million deal with the Seahawks. It’s both a homecoming and a karmic outcome.
After the Huskies and Cougars both whiffed on Kupp, the Seahawks solved a positional problem while amending this state’s mistakes.
But scrape away the sentimentality, and this decision still makes sense. The Seahawks released Tyler Lockett and traded DK Metcalf last week, leaving an eerily empty wide receiver room. Their depth chart consists of ascending No. 1 Jaxon Smith-Njigba (100 catches, 1,130 receiving yards, 6 TD in 2024), veteran deep threat Marquez Valdes-Scantling (19, 411, 4) and third-year target Jake Bobo (13, 107, 1).
But among available options, Kupp’s production is unparalleled.
In eight successful seasons in Los Angeles, he compiled 634 catches, 7,776 receiving yards, 58 touchdowns, a Pro Bowl and a Super Bowl. The high point was 145 receptions, 1,947 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns in 2021. He also added 47 catches, 568 receiving yards (81.1 per game) and two touchdowns in seven games (and five wins) at Lumen Field.
So why would the Rams release him? Kupp’s momentum has been hampered by mounting injuries. There was a torn ACL in 2018, a high ankle sprain in 2022, a lingering hamstring issue in 2023 and another ankle injury in 2024. The 6-2, 207-pound receiver has been sidelined for 18 games in the past three campaigns. And at 31, Kupp’s durability could continue to decline.
But he’s worth the risk for a simple reason: Kupp can still play.
He corralled 67 passes for 710 receiving yards and six touchdowns in just 12 games last season, and he projects as an ideal No. 2 receiver beside Smith-Njigba. Suddenly the Seahawks have surrounded new quarterback Sam Darnold with a compelling cast of playmakers — including wide receivers Smith-Njigba, Kupp and Valdes-Scantling, running backs Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, and tight ends Noah Fant and AJ Barner.
In a productive first week of NFL free agency, the Seahawks have added Kupp, Darnold, Valdes-Scantling, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and backup offensive lineman Josh Jones. And though there’s still an obvious need for offensive linemen, ESPN reported that former Bears guard Teven Jenkins will visit the team Monday.
Regarding Kupp, the Seahawks won a (long-awaited) bidding war, outdueling the likes of Dallas, New England and more.
It wasn’t always this way. In 2012, Kupp earned just two scholarship offers, from FCS Eastern Washington and Idaho State. He joked that, “I had to choose between two schools, so it wasn’t like there was a big battle going on for me or anything.”
In an incomparable career at EWU, Kupp dunked on his doubters — claiming 15 FCS, 11 Big Sky and 26 school records along the way. In four games against Pac-12 opponents, he totaled 40 catches, 716 receiving yards and an astronomical 11 touchdowns.
That included eight catches for 145 yards and three scores in a 59-52 loss inside Husky Stadium in 2014. And after the reigning Walter Payton FCS Offensive Player of the Year fileted WSU for 12 catches, 206 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-42 win two years later, Cougs coach Mike Leach said, “Today, the best player on the field was Cooper Kupp.”
The Seahawks don’t need Kupp to be the best player on the field. They need him to be a reliable outlet for Darnold on third down. They need him to be an example for Smith-Njigba and Seattle’s other ascending wide receivers. They need him to be a locker-room leader and a positive presence in his home state.
They need him to be on the field, more than anything.
Maybe you feel Kupp wasn’t worth the bidding war, or that he left his best football in L.A. Maybe you feel this amounts to a desperation move, as Seattle sinks its money into veterans with injury issues and risky returns.
But Kupp still loves football, and he knows how to play it well.
The Seahawks won a bidding war. The whole state won as well.