Cooper Kupp put together one of the best seasons ever by a wide receiver in 2021, winning the triple crown and taking home Offensive Player of the Year honors. He caught 145 passes for 1,947 yards and scored 16 touchdowns that year, eventually winning Super Bowl MVP, too.
Yet, he still doesn’t get ranked among the best receivers by some people. Davante Adams is the latest to leave him out of the top five – which he actually turned into a top seven.
Adams was on the “I Am Athlete” podcast and Brandon Marshall had him list the five best receivers in the NFL right now, which began with Adams putting himself first. The other six receivers were as follows.
1. Davante Adams
2a. Justin Jefferson
2b. Tyreek Hill
3. Stefon Diggs
4. Calvin Ridley
5a. Mike Evans
5b. CeeDee Lamb
Nos. 1-3 aren’t surprising at all. That’s the quartet of receivers a lot of people would put in the top four, in whatever order. But picking Ridley over Kupp is quite the take. Ignoring the fact that Ridley missed all of 2022 while serving a suspension for betting, he’s never come close to putting up the numbers Kupp has.
His best season came in 2020 when he caught 90 passes for 1,347 yards and nine touchdowns. He had 281 yards in five games in 2021 before getting hurt, but even those two seasons combined didn’t match Kupp’s production in 2021 alone.
Had Kupp not gotten hurt last season, and had the Rams not been the worst offense in the NFL, perhaps he would’ve made Adams’ top five (really, seven). He’ll have a chance to again show why he’s one of the best receivers in the league this season now that he and Matthew Stafford are both healthy again.
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