Raheem Morris Hints at the 'Masterful' Secrets of Rams WR Cooper Kupp
Cooper Kupp's receiving talents have undoubtedly created a formidable list of adversaries, not least of which are the Los Angeles Rams' divisional rivals.
But those opponents only have to deal with Kupp twice, maybe three times if you're the Rams' Monday opponent and NFC title game victims from San Francisco (5:15 p.m. PT, ESPN). Just imagine being tasked with stopping him nearly every non-game day of the NFL season.
Perhaps unspoken an unspoken task, that's been a part of Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris' duties since he became the unit's boss last season. Though the Rams' title defense hasn't fully gone to plan in the early going, Morris and Kupp have handled business on their respective ends: Los Angeles (2-1) is currently tied for second in the NFL with seven takeaways while Kupp ranks second and eighth with 28 receptions and 280 yards respectively, following up a brilliant campaign that saw him fall a mere 53 yards short of 2,000.
With few in the NFL more used to Kupp's antics, as well as developing schemes on how to contain him, Morris hinted at the receiver's secrets in the lead-up to the San Francisco visit.
"If you had a category for receivers in intellect and dialogue, Cooper Kupp would be right up there," Morris lauded. "I ain’t saying that he's the best because I haven't been around everybody, but from what I've been around, he is without a doubt at a different level than most."
In just six seasons, Kupp has rewritten the aerial chapters of the Cleveland/St. Louis/Los Angeles record book, standing as one of only five Rams with at least 400 receptions and 5,000 yards with a curled helmet sticker. Even with talents and capability well known to NFL defense and audiences at this point, Kupp is still managing to impress.
As the Rams' offense tries to generate some consistency on their ends of the field, Kupp is still adding new tricks to his repertoire: his latest touchdown came of a new fashion, taking a jet sweep 20 yards to provide Los Angeles an early lead in last week's visit to Arizona, the highlight of a 20-9 victory over the Cardinals.
"Jet sweeps, who knew? You can do whatever (with him)," Morris said with a relative smirk. "Thank God I don't have to take away Cooper Kupp (on game day). He's a masterful guy that can get on your edge. He can work at edges about as good as anybody. He can make his moves look exactly the same when he's going opposite ways.
Now he's added this new vertical element to his game that’s just taken him to a whole new level. I think that's the biggest difference in Cooper Kupp.”
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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