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Cooper Kupp: "The Best Teams Get Better As The Year Goes On" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I'm good. How are you beat me to it? I shall.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: You've obviously played a lot of big games.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Everybody talks about trying to keep not think about the
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: bigness of the game and all that.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And just kind of keep it normal. How how how
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: hard or easy is that to do?
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: I think it's I think it's hard to do if
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: that's not how you've taken the approach, you know, throughout
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: the year. And but something that's talked about, this is
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: something we talk about week in and week out here
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: about our process about how we're gonna handle our day
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: to day and and winning the day. What's important right now?
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Handle that? And you know what's important right now is
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: a great you know, football Thursday. I know it's not that,
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: but like you know, it's it's what what we just
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: be focused on on what this moment is and prepare yourself.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: And you know, I think because we've taken that approach,
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: you know, every single week since back in April, it
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: makes it easy to just say this is just another game.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: We get opportunity go out there playing.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: It's a real good football team, and it's about us
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: being able to exude our stuff.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: For a kickoff, still get excited or.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, always, always, I mean I get the same
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: butterflies I got, you know, back first grade kids game.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It's just it's the same thing.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: You were a Seahawks fan back when there was a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Legion boom rivalry with the forty nine ers. What do
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you remember about that era between.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: These two teams.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it was pretty electric. It's just some yeah,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: some big, big moments and stuff. That's a lot of
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: big ones. They are up on the wall out there,
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: and uh yeah, I mean it's it's great's I mean,
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: you love you love this. You love opportunities to play,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: to play meaningful games in January. That's a that's a
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: really cool thing. And yeah, you don't take that lightly.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: And and at the end of the day, it's just
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: it's the competition.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Of this league.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's it's just competitive as can be. These
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: are the best football players in the world that you
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: get to go up against day in and day out,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: week in and week out. And so obviously when you
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: play at a high level and then you see some
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: of these teams twice in one year, sometimes you see
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: them three times in one year, things get that competitiveness
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: gets heightened, and so it's it's fun.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: This team is played very well on the road.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: You guys have said you like playing on the road.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: How does that feeling and effort and heard the other teams.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: That you've got on, Yeah, I mean very to other
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: teams in terms of the other team.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Of those teams, each team comes to each.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Year, it comes together differently. Yeah, you're right, and and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think you as much as you try,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: you try not to make them too much different. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: think even when you do travel you try to keep
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: a familiar like rhythm to the week. I mean you
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: obviously it's different not being in front of your crowd
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: and and what the the energy that that they bring
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: at Lumen and you go somewhere else and there's we
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: played in some games this year where it has been
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: very quiet and you've had to bring your own energy.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: We've also played in games where it's rocking, and you
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: know there's there's an energy there as well. You get
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: feed off and and play the game. By the end
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: of the day, you still you still got to be
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: so locked into what your job is and what what's
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: happening in that moment. It's an energy that's felt, it's
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: it's around you. It's a it's an environment, but you
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: know you're you are you are a part of this
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: environment that's you know, operating. So I don't know if
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: the answers your question. I gotta got off on a
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: tangent there, but it's it's something that you you you
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: try to keep you know, kind of separates, you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: stay in your process.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: There's obviously nobody quite like Devin Witherspoon. But who do
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: you think is the the offenses equivalent of Devon Witherspoon
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: in terms of just like the guy who brings a
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: lot of juice.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, you can't. There's no there's no one
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: in the don't there's anyone in the league like Spoon.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: But if you want to know who the energy guy
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: is offensively, I mean AJ is probably are our energy guy.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: We got a lot of And this is is typical
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: I think most offenses I've been on, it's like the
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: offense is pretty steady and then the defense is always
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: the ones that are talking a lot. But yeah, AJ
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: will get in there and say some stuff. You never
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: know what's gonna come up in his mouth. It's it's good,
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: keeps you on your toes. Aj like a dog barking
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: or you know, some it could be anything. It could
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: be any any kind of thing. It's it's very loud.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: You know, he's got he's definitely got the most nicknames
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: on the team.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: But you try. I mean everyone loves him. You love him.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You love guys like that that are good.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: He's he's all out for for his guys, you know,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: playing and play out. So but definitely, yeah, definitely the
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: energy guy. Uh, I prefer Captain hook Is is a
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: good one. You guys have to ask him the inside
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: story and the Captain hook Sorry, but yeah, Captain hook
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: I'll go.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: With my.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I'm sure he did, you know. Yeah, but
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: it's it's a little thing, you know. It's it's not
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: like it's you know, they're giving you a speech. It's
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: just you know, it's a it's a we got I
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: can't even do it. You have to ask him to
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  Speaker 4: do It's it's just his own it's his own thing
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: at max volume.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: And uh, it's it's great.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: Last time you played the forty nine Ers, that was
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: your first game, Sam first game, Clint Kubi exers games.
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: Have you seen this offense evolve over the year from
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: where you were week one with so much newness to
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: where you are at the end of the year.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I do think there's a I mean you
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: watched the film. I think there's another level of comfortability
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: and understanding of what we're trying to get done, who
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: we are as as a football as an offensive unit,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: and what we how we want to operate. And I
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: do think it comes back to ultimately just that understanding
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: and mastery of the offense and and guy is not
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: second guessing anything but just being able to send it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: And I think that's uh. I think that's the main
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: thing I've seen just as the years going on, and
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: it's a testament to what we've talked about, like the
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: best teams get better as the years go on, as
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the game games are played, you learn from your mistakes,
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: and guys just get better and better and better, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: you're a better team hopefully week eighteen than you were
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: in Week one. And I think as we watched the film,
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: like we feel that.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Where you guys better on what where are you guys
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: better than from the start of the year.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: That's why I think there's every I guess the details.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: I think that the details, the anticipation, I think are there.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: It's just everything's just happening, I think a lot faster
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: for us, and which means the game's slowing down.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: You know. It's like you're able to anticipate things, see things.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: I understand where runs are hitting, how we want to
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: hit our blocks, how we're distributing the field. In the
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: past game, Sam's comfortability and trust of all the guys,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: you know, being able to sit in the pocket and
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: make some make some really tough throws.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: He's done a great job of that as the year
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: has gone on. And I think, you know, as you
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: look at just across the board, everyone's everyone's game and
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: those are just a few areas, Like there's this improvement
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: in that anticipation, in the understanding.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: What do you think is Sam's defining trade as a leader?
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: The thing about the way he leads.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: The stands out to the Yeah, I think the resiliency.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I think he's as resilient as it comes. I've talked
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: a lot about his consistency, you know, whatever one you want,
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: but those those I think are interchangeable with him, and
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: he's just do a great job of That's just you
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: have a guy that's gonna be himself over and over
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: and over again, no matter what's thrown at him, no
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: matter what environment he's in or what the circumstances are,
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: you can count getting the same count and count on
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: getting the same sam leading that huddle, leading the offense,
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  Speaker 4: and how he's done this whole year.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: That's who he's been. Everybody talks about that kind of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: his even keeled nature.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Have you played with quarterbacks that aren't that way or
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: is that something quarterbacks?
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: I think I think the best quarterbacks have it. I
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: think that, I mean you have to. And the quarterbacks
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: you're dealing with so much the flows of a game,
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: all the things that that come about. I mean, you're
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: fixing things from offensive coordinator communication and things like that.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: You're if you're fixing problems and handling pressures whatever the
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: defense Like, there's all this stuff that you're having, these
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: inputs that you're having to take in and be able to,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: you know, give good output, outputs that you know to
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: your guys.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: So so you can lead them and communicate clearly.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: And so the best ones aren't gonna you know, those
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  Speaker 4: outputs don't start changing just because there's more inputs or
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: the inputs are a little louder inputs are a little more.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Mean or something. You know.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: It's just like there's a there's a consistency in terms
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: of once it comes in through him, as it comes
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: into the offense.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: It's consistent. It's the same thing over and over again.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: The resilient, the resilient quarterback to for that huddle in
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: each each player in terms of their assignment into patience
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: and will come in adversity.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think keeps everyone in that place, keeps everyone
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: in that place where they can just allows guys to play.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: You know, there's.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: That It keep takes the the onus goes on the
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: quarterback right to take a lot of that stuff and
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: filter out a lot of the other stuff that's coming
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: in that wants to make its way into the huddle,
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: and we can just focus on how you run your play.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: You get back to the huddle and you get ready
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: for the next one. You get ready to actually the
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: next one. No matter what happened, well you want or
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: lost that rep, you can come back and just play
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: the next play because you know he's not coming in
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: here with any kind of heightened anxiety or any kind
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: of you know, heightened pressure for anyone to perform. It's like, hey, no,
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: we're on the next play. No matter what has happened,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: no matter what's going on here, We're on the next playing.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: We'll get to go out there and and and send
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: it again. And so God's trust and the ability to
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: come in and feel like that that huddle is a
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: great place, a launching pad to be able go out
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: there and let it rip.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: That's that's a big deal for us when you were.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: You know, in stands watching football games instead of you know,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: playing in the NFL. And now, what do you think
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: has been the biggest surprise to you about what you
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: thought was going on getting ready for games like this
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: versus like what it actually.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Is Like you know, I don't know.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: I don't know that how much I thought about it,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: like you know, growing up in terms of the preparation practice.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I mean like.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: When I was a young kid, I think you thought
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: there was a lot less meetings, you know, need more
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: time on the field and a lot less meeting time.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: But you know, like I've I've touched on it before,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Like you know, we meet, we're in meetings for you know,
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: you know, three or four times more time than we
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: are out in the field practicing.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: So that's definitely different.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Spoiler for all those young kids out there that were
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: hoping just to be out in the grass playing football.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: But I mean, I don't know as a kid, you're
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: playing football, man, you're not worried about all this other
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: stuff like that. They if they if you had told
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: me the NFL players have showed up on Sunday when
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: I was eight nine years old and just go go play.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds about right.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: Not necessarily saying Jackson and bellis to face maskull, But
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: what kind of bedroom nuans play was that that he made.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Sure the whole world knew. Yeah, that was great.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: It was you know, Jackson Smith and Jigma Juilliard School
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: of drama right there.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: This is great.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: What makes a team better in meetings than another team?
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: But what makes a team better in meetings? Yeah, well,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: I think there's a I think there's a heightened focus,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Like you like, regardless of what is, there's something to
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: be grabbed from all these meetings. And it's really easy.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: I'm like, it's a discussion we had. It's really easy
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: to sit into the receiver, sit in a run game
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: meeting and feel like it's your chance to kind of
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: like you know, pull your hat down a little bit
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: and like after they're taking notes and kind of just
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: like zone out, you know. But there's something in every
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: meeting for everyone, and regardless regardless of you know, where
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: you're at, like being present and being engaged, you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: ask the questions because it might not just be for you.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: It might just be something doesn't look right, doesn't make sense.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: The coaches have not slept, like there's something they're they're
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: gonna miss stuff too, like being able to just be
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: engaged to ask questions because we're all learning together, you know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Like I think that's the best teams that I've been on.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: It's like this is a learning thing, even we're installing stuff,
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: Like it's a learning thing for everyone and we all
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: want to get it right. So don't feel like any
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: question is wrong because there might be something that someone
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: else has. It might someone else might not out of it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: And so the best ones are in that place and
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: you know, take this, take a game plan earlier in
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: the week, and just continue to chip away at it,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: refine it, and so uh, you know, that's where that's
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: where it happens. Is a lot of that stuff is
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: in here.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: The kind of person has a memory that you can
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: remember specifics from a game that was seventeen weeks ago,
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: or you the kind of needs like to watch the
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: film again for it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Kind of pop down in here.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think there's I'm not there's been
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: guys in this league that you know, are known for
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: pulling some crazy like plays out. You know, that's not
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: That's not how I operate. I can definitely remember moments
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: and things like that, but that's not how I how
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: I do things.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I like to be able.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: We'll go back and watch the film and take a
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: lot of notes so I can learn and write. I
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: feel better if I write things down. But yeah, I don't.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I don't. I can't boast a photographic memory or anything
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: We hear from your coaches and teammates a lot about,
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: you know, just your football intelligence, how you the questions
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: you ask, how they learned from you.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Has that always been a big.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: Part of your game?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Is it something other like high school college pros where you.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: Recognize, like, hey, this part of the game really stands
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: out beyond the physical or when did that kind of
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: come to in?
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think it was it was a I
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: think early on it was an emphasis like I need
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: to know things better. One because I love I love
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: the ball and there's no like that's the first thing.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: First things first, Like, I just absolutely love this game,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: and I had to learn stuff because I'm like, I'm
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: just not faster, stronger than people, and so I just
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: had to figure out something. If I can understand the technique,
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: if I understand the tactical side, the technical side of things,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: then you know, it gives me an edge. And found
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: that I could like that. That was what kept me
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: in the game as a kid. You know, it kept
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: me able to like keep up because I had that stuff.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: And as I've learned it, I've learned that at every
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: level that there's more there.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: There's more.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: The the whole is like that you go into that
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: cave and you just there's no end.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: It's just like there's more and more and more to learn.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: And the game, even when you think you've got it,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: like the game changes and you go back and like, man,
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: what used to be true it's no longer true, And
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: it's like this growing amoeba that you're trying to like
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: contain and understand. And I love that. I love the
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: pursuit of it, and yeah, it brings me a lot
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: of joy to be able to go through these things
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: and be a part of this process.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: To go out there and play this game. Anything else
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: has awesome thing you