Cooper Kupp’s list of accomplishments as an NFL receiver is impressive. He won the triple crown in 2021 when he led the league in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches, putting together one of the best seasons ever by a wideout. That same year, he was voted Offensive Player of the Year, helped the Rams win the Super Bowl and was named Super Bowl MVP.
For a franchise that has had some historically great receivers, he already ranks fourth all-time in Rams history with 7,066 career receiving yards. Yet, as successful as Kupp has been in his seven seasons as a pro, he doesn’t use those numbers to gauge whether he’s had success.
He shared his unique way of measuring success during his press conference on Thursday and it’s unsurprisingly deep for a player as smart as Kupp.
“There are always going to be the goals that you have for yourself,” Kupp said. “Every year, you come to this… [when] the season starts, every team’s goal is to win a world title. That’s just what it is. Now, how you want to measure success, which I think goes to individuals around this league – what success is, I think guys play for a lot of different reasons. Some guys play to make it to the Hall of Fame. Some guys play for the next contract. Some guys play just truly because they love the game. For me, I measure success a lot by how my mentality was when I look back on the year. Was I fearful stepping on the field? Did I allow myself to play freely? Did I allow all the work I’m doing during the week to just let that go on Sunday and play without any regrets of whatever’s going to happen? The worst thing is looking back and saying, ‘Man, I was hesitant here. I wish I’d just gone for it.’ The worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t work. For me, it’s about having that mentality of attacking, playing from a sense of I’ve already won. Playing from that sense and not saying I’m trying to – I’m not fearing failure, I’m attacking the opportunity to go win. That’s how I kind of measure success and everyone has their own thing though.”
Since winning the triple crown in 2021, Kupp has had a couple of down years. He missed eight games in 2022 with an ankle injury and he missed the first four games of last season after straining his hamstring in camp. In total, he caught 134 passes for 1,549 yards and 11 touchdowns in the last two seasons, all of which are lower figures than he had in 2021 alone.
As poor as those numbers are by his standards, it doesn’t mean he viewed the last two seasons as unsuccessful. That being said, the future is looking much brighter for the veteran receiver now that he’s fully healthy for the first time since 2021.