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Cooper Kupp: "Jaxon Smith-Njigba Has Been Unbelievable" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone? Brady. Yes. So under center snaps are
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the highest rate they've been since like 2013. I'm curious
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: for you as a receiver, how much does it change
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the way you run a route when something's under center versus,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you know, straight drop back? Yeah. I mean, you shouldn't
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: be changing it too much. Um, I think it can
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: change some things on some routes, like when you get
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to like the goal line. Um, but only because you
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: got field gets short, very short, you know, but for
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the most part, I mean, you're, you're, you're running routes
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, all that stuff's time with the OC
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: does a great job in terms of timing up what's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: happening back there with what the routes are being run
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: down the field. So you just, you, you go, you
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: go run your route and you know, they've got things
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: set up to be able to make sure that all
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: time's up together.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Is there such thing as targeting Jackson Smith and Jacob.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Too much during the game? I don't think we've, we
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: haven't reached that point yet. I don't think, right. Like,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, Efficiency-wise, I think he's been unbelievable. And so, yeah,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's doing exactly what he's supposed to do. And, yeah,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: so I'm not sure that that number exists. But, I mean,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: we'll see.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You talked during training camp about his need to balance
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: being the reigning offensive MVP, right? How have you seen
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: him do that, maybe behind the scenes?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think it's just been– you know trusting
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of his process um the way he goes about his
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: business from day to day on the way that he
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: practices there's no um oh i mean you know then
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: like the big question was about like expectation like how
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: do you manage your own expectation or whether wherever the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: expectation is on the outside and being able to say
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: okay look there's going to be things that like football
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: is a fail-oriented sport there's going to be this can
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: be part of the it's part of the deal um
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and not expecting that it's going to be perfection. Pursuing
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: it always, but knowing that that's not going to be
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: what the reality is. And I think he's done a
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: great job just, man, playing snap after snap, come back
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: with great energy. And, yeah, I think you've seen it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously his last two weeks has been just
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: balling out. So he's doing something right.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Mike mentioned Sam will practice some this week and kind
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: of see how it goes. As an offense as a team,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: what kind of confidence does it give you guys that
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: whether he goes or not, with him obviously over a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: long time, and now Drew Locke, that, like, whoever's out there,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: you guys are going to be okay?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Drew did an unbelievable job over the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: last two weeks. But I think what was really cool
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: is Drew didn't change. You know what I mean? Like,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Drew was the same exact guy, you know, preparing to
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: back up Sam that first week as he was preparing
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to start the second week. I think that's a testament
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to Drew, the kind of person he is, and just
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: how much he cares about this team. And so we
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: know that– regardless of what it is this week, that
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Drew is going to be preparing just the same way.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And so plenty of confidence, whoever it's going to be,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: but hopefully we'll see Sam out there a little bit
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: this week. Going back to Jackson, he has 120 catches,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: almost 1,800 yards left. Is he somehow better this year?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Do you see things he's doing even better than he
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: was last season? I mean, that's the goal, right, is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to always be improving. I think he– I asked Jax
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: about last year and say, you know, can you get,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: can you be better? So I go, well, did you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: make a mistake? Did you, was there any time that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you made a mistake? And it's like, well, certainly it's
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: happening every game, you know, it's happening. It's constant. So
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that's the world we live in. It's a constant world of,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I said, of failure. And so, you know, there's, there's
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: never an arrival, but there's always the journey to get there,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you know? And so, you know, I think he's done
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a great job of handling his stuff. It's off season.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I said, it's process. tells you that he believes he
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: has not arrived, right? Like the way that he puts
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: his work and the way that he practices, the way
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: he goes about this, nothing about that says anything about, hey,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this is a guy that thinks he's there, you know?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And so you keep doing those things, you keep stacking
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: those habits, you're going to get better. And I think
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: he has. Cooper, Mike McDonald's vulnerability that he shared with
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the players, is that unusual in your football life? experience
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and leadership and what is it what are you left
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: thinking when he is vulnerable and say i screwed up
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: or if it's some shortcoming yeah well i think that's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: uh you know i think mike is um he chooses
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to be himself at all times and i think that's
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a very powerful thing and something that you know people
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: have a lot of respect for um because you know
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: he's you're gonna get him you're gonna get exactly what
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: he thinks and know no smoke and mirrors. And so,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I think you, it calls people up to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a great standard. When you have, when you're at the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: very top, you can be accountable and the very top,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you can be vulnerable. When you can say, I messed up,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I can be better for you. When you have guys
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that just share kind of how they're feeling, opens the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: door for everyone else to step into that same spot.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: And when you've got a team of accountable players, you
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: can be a very powerful unit. So, you know, he
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: leads the way for us and calls everyone up to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: that standard. And, yeah, it's a very special thing.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Have you had a leader in your football life like that?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I mean, there is, yeah. I mean, Mike
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: is very unique in terms of, like, his– I think
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: he is unique in terms of some of that, like,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: vulnerability stuff that you've talked about. But, you know, I
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: think just about every great leader that– great coach, great
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: leader that I've been able to either share the field
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: with or be coached by, um, has some of those qualities.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You guys have, uh, been super efficient in most personnel packages,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, uh, three wide.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Receiver sets have not worked so well so far this year.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Anything you're noticing there?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I mean, when we're getting, um, the last
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: two weeks we've had, I mean, when we haven't had
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: a ton of those opportunities, um, and, you know, I think, um,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: You've got to look at what defenses are doing, what
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: are things that you're expecting to do, what are you
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: trying to do as well. So there's a lot of
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: things that go into that. And I think at the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: end of the day, the goal would be able to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: be efficient, no matter what personnel we're in, finding ways
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to be efficient. But you also have to choose your
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: spots and understand that we want to attack certain things.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: And that's going to change week by week. It's going
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: to change day by day, what we're thinking and how
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: we want to attack things. Certainly the goal is to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: be very critical of ourselves and find ways to make
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: sure that every personnel we're out there, that we're moving
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the ball forward in an efficient manner. But there's also
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of factors that go into that in terms
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of when we're calling things, why we're doing it, and
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: what we're expecting from the other side.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Having now been here with this team for over a
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: year and traveled with this team, first big East Coast
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: trip of the year, what do you think it is
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: that's allowed this team to travel as well as it does.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Especially when going East? I'm honestly not sure what it is.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the, you know, if it's just
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the extra time of guys all together, you know, is it,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure what it is, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we've found ways to be successful, to be able to
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: be locked in, ready to go, no matter whether it's,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you know, those, what is it, like, you know, 10
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: o'clock our time type of, you know, kickoffs on these
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: coast trips. But we, I mean, the guys have done
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a great job and, I think we've got a lot
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: of people here that put a lot of time into
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: making sure there's a plan that we feel really good
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: about executing in terms of the nutrition staff, the training staff.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So many people that pour a lot of time into
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: making sure that plan is dialed in. And whatever we've
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: been doing, we've been doing a good job at it.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: Cooper, yesterday there was a lot made of Mike's comments,
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: and it's important you got here, but in 2024 about
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: pulling training camp footage from the side of the field
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: in Denver and looking at what the Broncos were doing.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: I'm wondering, you've been around for a while playing this game.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe after you finished at Davis, have you ever been
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: shown film or video that comes from that kind of
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: perspective of an open training camp practice like that?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I've just heard about this. But yeah,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I don't really know what we're talking about when you
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: say you're not allowed to use public... video of something
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: right like i'm i'm not exactly sure how that works
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: what the rules are around that but i'd say like
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: if if if you guys are allowed to see it
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: i don't know why we wouldn't be able to see
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: it right so like that's that's kind of where i'm
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: at with that anything else thank you guys