Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp didn't take long to establish himself in the league. Despite being a third-round pick out of Eastern Washington, Kupp immediately made a name for himself.
The buzz started building during his first offseason, and he delivered right away. As a rookie he racked up an impressive 869 yards and five touchdowns. Unfortunately, injuries limited Kupp to only eight games last year. Despite the limited sample size and the fact that he's coming off a torn ACL, he's shown enough to prove he belongs among the league's best. Accordingly, Doug Farrar of the Touchdown Wire recently ranked Kupp as the seventh-best slot receiver in the NFL.
Jared Goff had a noticeable decline for a few games after the Rams' bye week, which coincided closely with Kupp's ACL tear. Farrar thinks that the two events were linked, writing that 'losing Kupp forced Goff to go through his progressions without an easy first-read target in ways he wasn't quite ready for.'
As Farrar notes Kupp did most of his damage out of the slot last season, with 417 of his 566 yards and five of his six touchdowns coming out of the slot. 'He's one of the most route-correct receivers in the game, and he perfectly fits McVay's paradigm of running tight formations and spreading the field post-snap with his ability to get open on quick outs and boundary stuff,' Farrar writes.
Amidst the hectic nature of the Rams' Super Bowl run, Kupp got lost a bit. Many people forgot the Rams were missing one of their best weapons, and Kupp's return should be huge for Goff and the whole offense in 2019. Since entering the league, Kupp has averaged over 14 yards per catch and also caught over 68 percent of his targets, translating to extremely impressive efficiency.
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He seems to be progressing well in his recovery, as he participated in 11-on-11 drills at OTAs recently. The goal has always been to be ready by the start of the regular season, and everything seems to be on track for that.
'The slot receiver's kind of the quarterback of the receivers,' he said in 2015. Ios slots with real prizes slots. 'More so because the slot receiver has more responsibilities in terms of reading coverages and different adjustments based on what coverages you're seeing. It's a lot more complicated. You have to know a lot more. Throughout the 2018 season he also flashed his versatility to play from various receiver positions and proved to be a solid threat from the slot due to his run after the catch ability. His efforts certainly didn't go unnoticed by some analysts in the nation like our comrade Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, who listed Westbrook as the NFL's. Cobb's $12.6 million cap was the eighth-highest among wide receivers this season, according to Sportrac. If he's still on the roster in 2018, Cobb would have a $12.7 million cap hit, whereas the No. 1-ranked slot receiver, Baldwin, would follow slightly behind at $12.1 million.
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Robert Woods and Brandin Cooks rightfully got a ton of attention for their contributions last year, but Kupp will have an opportunity for just as big of a role next year. As Farrar finishes by saying, 'if Kupp is ready to go Week 1 of the 2019 season, McVay's offense should pick up where it left off.'
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A pretty good slot receiver will be joining us on Wednesday morning from Atlanta: Danny Amendola of the Dolphins, and previously of the Rams and Patriots. Other Wednesday guests include Jets safety Jamal Adams, Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, former Colts punter Pat McAfee, Alabama running back Josh Jacobs. Houston Texans: Last season, the Texans deployed three-receiver sets on the third-fewest percentage of plays in the NFL (44.8, per NGS), a figure that was obviously impacted by injuries.