Brock Huard says HBO’s “Hard Knocks” is offering a clear look at why Cooper Kupp stands out inside the Seahawks’ building.
On Tuesday’s third episode, Huard said one detail kept jumping out at him: Kupp keeps appearing in quarterback meetings, not just in the wide receivers room. The longtime FOX football broadcaster and former NFL quarterback talked about it on Wednesday’s edition of Brock and Salk.
“I’m not the purveyor of all knowledge of every QB room and every wide receiver in the history of the NFL, but I have never in my lifetime seen a receiver that is in the QB room as often as Cooper Kupp is,” Huard said. “(He’s there) every time they show that QB room - and again, he’s also in his wide receiver room.
“Any time he’s done with his wide receiver work, he is finding himself in that QB room, talking to Sam (Darnold), talking to to (Drew) Lock, talking to Mike Macdonald, who by the way it looks like also frequents that quarterback room, knows that that’s kind of the heartbeat of the whole deal.”
Huard called the setup “uncommon,” and he didn’t soften that assessment.
“Unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Huard said.
“… Cooper’s not just seeing it, he’s learning it, he’s hearing it, he’s connected to it. There’s so many cool nuggets in this show, but that one, the Cooper Kupp story, pretty remarkable.”
Kupp, who is 33 and from Yakima, played at EWU and is now in his 10th NFL season. This is his second stint back in Washington with the Seahawks. He is no longer the player who put together one of the greatest wide receiver seasons in NFL history in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams, but he still helped Seattle win its second Super Bowl title last year, which was also the second championship of his career.
“Hard Knocks” is now showing more of the value Kupp brings beyond game day, with his presence in meetings and his connection to the quarterback room emerging as a major part of the story.
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