When the Rams take the field against the 49ers for their final regular-season game on Sunday, there will be a lot on the line. A win will give them the NFC West crown and the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, while a loss could potentially drop them to fifth.
For Cooper Kupp individually, this is also a huge game. With 138 catches and 1,829 yards, Kupp is 135 yards shy of Calvin Johnson’s single-season record for the most receiving yards and 11 receptions behind Michael Thomas for the most in one season. He has a chance to break both of them, albeit in one extra game due to the NFL expanding the regular season to 17 games for the first time this year.
Kupp’s top priority is to win the game, but when it comes to those records, he says it wouldn’t seem right to break them in 17 games. Johnson and Thomas accomplished those feats in 16 games, and Kupp believes records set in this expanded schedule should be separated.
“In all honesty, in my opinion, we’re in a very unique season. We’re the longest football season ever played,” Kupp said Monday. “What the guys did that set those records – Mike Thomas, Randy Moss for the touchdowns, what Calvin Johnson did with the yards. What those guys did in 16 games, it wouldn’t seem right to, I don’t know, for those to be broken in 17 games. It wouldn’t hold the same weight to me as it does for guys that have done that in a 16-game season and the accomplishments that those guys had and the seasons those guys put together. Those are incredible things, incredible accomplishments. You kind of have to separate the two. We’re in a new age of football where we’re playing 17 games a year. A lot of the stuff happened before that, those records hold a different weight, being that they were played in those 16 games. I have just an incredible respect for what those guys were able to do, what they were able to accomplish and what they were able to produce for their teams in those 16 games.”
Sean McVay said Kupp’s chase for those records won’t affect the team’s game plan against the 49ers. But he did note that Kupp’s production typically goes hand-in-hand with the offense moving the ball because of how integral he is as a player.
McVay wouldn’t rule out drawing up plays to get Kupp the ball if he’s close to breaking the records on Sunday, but he also doesn’t want to force anything in a game that has such major implications for the playoffs – especially at the risk of getting Kupp hurt.
“I don’t know. I think that’s something that I think you definitely want to kind of be open-minded where you’d never close the door on it, but not at the expense of potentially losing him too,” McVay said. “And so, all those things are up in the air. I wouldn’t pigeonhole myself into kind of one standard operating approach.”
For Kupp, he doesn’t care if he has to block more to help Sony Michel break off big runs if it means the Rams will win. He’s all about the team and helping the Rams succeed.
“My priorities are going in to win this game this week,” he said. ”Whatever it takes to win that. If it means spending more time blocking defensive ends and being able to get Sony sprung for some big gains, that would be huge. I just want to do my job.”
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