Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford show they’ve regained form at Rams training camp
Cooper Kupp zipped past a cornerback along the left sideline and hauled in a long touchdown pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford.
On the next play, the star receiver created separation from a safety, caught a pass in the middle of the field and scored again.
A few plays later, Kupp dove for a tipped ball near the line of scrimmage.
Eight months after season-ending ankle surgery, Kupp appears to have regained the form and fire that helped him win the so-called triple crown of receiving in 2021, when he was named the NFL’s offensive player of the year.
On Thursday, during the Rams’ second practice of training camp at UC Irvine, Kupp and Stafford looked as in concert as when they helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium. That victory capped nearly a year of work that began when Stafford and Kupp connected during offseason workouts in 2021.
“That’s been kind of the weird but really cool thing,” Kupp said. “It’s kind of felt like from the first time he was here…. We just kind of like clicked.”
Matthew Stafford acknowledged the Rams approached him about his contract during the spring, and was aware teams inquired about trading for him.
Last season, Kupp had 75 catches, six for touchdowns, before he suffered an ankle injury during a Nov. 13 game against the Arizona Cardinals.
The next week, Stafford suffered a season-ending spinal injury.
But after getting reacclimated during the Rams’ first training camp practice on Wednesday, Stafford and Kupp were in sync Thursday.
“It is nice having that, where you come back and you feel like things, you can just pick ‘em up from where we left off,” Kupp said.
Coach Sean McVay is counting on Stafford, 35, and Kupp, 30, to help lead a team trying to bounce back from a 5-12 record — the worst Super Bowl hangover in NFL history.
Kupp was absent for most of the offseason program to be with his wife as they awaited the birth of their third child.
When he attended workouts, Kupp joked that he was challenged to learn so many new faces. The roster includes nearly 40 rookies.
“I don’t know much of their references,” he joked Thursday,” but they bring a lot of juice.”
After the Rams won the Super Bowl, the Rams gave Kupp a three-year $75-million extension. Kupp was due to carry a team-high $27.8-million salary cap number this season before the team restructured the contract during the spring. Now he will carry a $17.8 million cap number, according to overthecap.com.
New offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was the San Francisco 49ers’ receivers coach in 2017 when he met and interviewed Kupp at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. LaFleur is enjoying working with Kupp.
“He’s had the production his whole career — it’s only gotten better,” LaFleur said. “He’s healthy, he’s feeling good, he loves coming to work. Whenever he decides to hang ‘em up he’s going to be a great coach or whatever the heck he wants to do.”
Kupp said he and Stafford still have work to do.
Sean McVay had his first losing season and oddsmakers say that should happen again this season. Although the Rams coach won’t say it, fans can’t count on many wins.
“The worst thing you can do is get stagnant, and just be like, ‘OK, well we’re good but we don’t have to practice it. It’s just going to happen,’” Kupp said, adding. “We know that we’ve got this natural chemistry about how we do things.
“But how much better can we be if we really are honing this thing in.”
Etc…
Second-year safety Quentin Lake intercepted a pass by rookie quarterback Stetson Bennett…. Tight end Tyler Higbee caught several touchdown passes from Stafford…. Receiver Tutu Atwell made one of the plays of the day on an underthrown pass when he aggressively prevented cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon from intercepting the pass…. Rookie receiver Puka Nacua was carted from the field at the end of practice. Nacua was suffering from cramps, a team official said. ... The Rams will not practice Friday. They resume workouts Saturday with their first practice open to the public.
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