The Seahawks may have changed coaches, but the operation clearly hasn’t lost its rhythm. Mike Macdonald’s team is trying to keep the momentum going after winning the Super Bowl just two years after moving on from Pete Carroll, and one of the early signs at training camp is a quarterback-receiver pairing that already looks locked in.
Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp have been showing strong chemistry, and HBO’s Hard Knocks caught a revealing glimpse of it during a film session. The camera stayed on the two of them, and the resemblance in their movements was hard to miss.
.@CooperKupp and Sam Darnold are completely in sync.
— NFL (@NFL) August 14, 2026
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the @Seahawks available now on @hbomax pic.twitter.com/wUEE7Td9fR
They leaned back together, leaned forward together, touched their faces, ate snacks, took drinks and even smiled in near-perfect step. The whole sequence made them look, as the source put it, “completely in sync.”
That connection isn’t coming out of nowhere. Darnold and Kupp had plenty of big moments in 2025, and their timing showed up when it mattered most in the postseason.
Kupp led Seattle in receptions and receiving yards in both the NFC Wild Card Round and Super Bowl 60, then added a crucial touchdown in the NFC Championship. Darnold, meanwhile, delivered a sharp outing against the Los Angeles Rams to help Seattle clinch the conference and stayed steady all the way through the playoff run.
The Seahawks’ offense had other headline names, too. Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba was the engine of the unit, and Kenneth Walker III was named Super Bowl MVP. Even so, Darnold and Kupp were central pieces of the championship push, and if the training-camp chemistry is any indication, that partnership is still very much intact heading into the new season.
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Myers is also in the final year of his contract, and there has not been any reporting of early extension talks to this point. That leaves the Seahawks in a familiar but uncomfortable spot: monitoring a veteran kicker who has earned trust in the past while also considering how hard it can be to find a dependable replacement if they decide to move on. [Read more 🡒]
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For Seattle, the value in games like this is not the scoreboard so much as the evidence it leaves behind. Some of the evaluation came through in individual plays, some in the broader picture of how each player handled his opportunities, and the coaching staff now has a better read on who is moving in the right direction. Even with the loss, the performance of those four added another layer to a roster battle that is still very much unsettled. [Read more 🡒]
Vikings Backfield Is Being Overlooked For One Important Reason
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Minnesotas backfield is part of that discussion too, with Jones and Mason forming a tandem that can easily get lost when the focus shifts to flashier young runners and more obvious breakout candidates. Jacory Croskey-Merritt has also entered the mix after a promising rookie season with Washington, but the broader point is simple enough: some of the most productive running games in the NFC do not always get the same attention as the ones built around the biggest prospect labels. [Read more 🡒]