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Cooper Kupp was drafted into the NFL with the 69th overall pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 2017. He has seen the league completely evolve over the last eight seasons, especially on defense.
Offenses got so good that the pendulum swung back in the other direction.
Kupp, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks during the offseason, was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2021 as the leader in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. Los Angeles won the Super Bowl that year and he was the game’s MVP.
However, the Rams did not have the same success in 2022, 2023 or 2024. They went 5-12 in the first year after their Super Bowl win, lost the Wild Card in the second year and lost the Divisional Round in the third year. What changed?
In the opinion of Cooper Kupp, it is the defense. He recently offered an insightful breakdown on how defenses were forced to change in response to the high-octane offenses like that of L.A. in 2021/22. It started in 2017 and 2018 with Sean McVay.
There were times where we’d run plays and I was like ‘they have no idea what is going on,’ and we were just manipulating, moving them to where we want, it was stupid.
— Cooper Kupp
Vic Fangio really started to catch on in 2019. Defenses started to run more Cover 4 and 6-1 systems, with safeties playing from depth. Brandon Staley took it to the next level in 2020.
Now Staley’s thing, he’s all about concept recognition, concept match, being able to cancel routes and move on to new things. Now you’ve got a defense that’s not just dropping into spots, but now they’re playing the offense.
— Cooper Kupp
The complicated offenses in the NFL forced the defenses to match that complexity. For every offensive strategy, the defense must have an answer. They essentially worked in tandem to elevate the entire league on both sides of the ball. Defenses had to react to the offenses.
Mind you, this is Cooper Kupp’s opinion. Other players may or may not agree. They might not see things the same way. You might disagree.
However, Kupp is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL who played on one of the most revolutionary offenses. He knows what he is talking about!
The post Cooper Kupp Explains Why NFL Defenses Are Better Than Ever Because Offenses Got Too Good appeared first on BroBible.
