Prior to shaving his epic beard for Organized Team Activities (OTAs), Pro Bowl Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp sat down with ex-New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman to discuss a variety of intriguing topics during the latter's must-listen "Games with Names" podcast.
When chatter turned to how Kupp is handling yet another offseason, he offered up a fairly candid take. Kupp, who's just under two weeks shy of his 31st birthday this month, has seen his fair share.
"It's probably my first offseason having a full offseason and being healthy out the gate where I can go and just train how I want to, really since the end of 2020 going into '21," . Having that's been great. You can't put enough value on just that time and the preparation it takes to get your body right to go and make this push."
"To put it in context, what people dont realize is when you're banged-up in an offseason, you're not getting better, you're trying to get to where you were at," Edelman said. "And the league is so smart that you have to reinvent yourself every offseason, 'cause there's film of how you played the year before."
The duo went on to agree that recuperating from an ailment during the summers essentially puts a damper on how much players can truly add to their game year-to-year. Kupp, who missed eight games in 2022 during a lost season for L.A. and sat out five games in 2023, is hoping to return to All-Pro glory in 2023.
In 2021, Kupp appeared in all 17 regular season contests for the Horns, catching 145 receptions for a total of 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. For his efforts, he was named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, a First-Team All-Pro and a Pro Bowler. Oh, and he was named the Super Bowl MVP, too. So there's that.
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