Why Cooper Kupp likely OUT vs. Seahawks in Week 1

Rams WR is probably OUT and other Seahawks news: Seaside Joe 1643

On Thursday, I was in the middle of writing the latest edition of Seasider Remarks, highlighting your best comments and reactions to recent articles I’ve written, and responding to a remark about playing the L.A. Rams in Week 1. You’ll have to wait until Saturday to see my full reaction, and Sunday for my preview of the Rams, but I can spoil this part:

A lot of people in the media are talking about the Rams as if they’re closer to the Super Bowl version than the 5-12 version from last season, but I haven’t even seen a single sign from L.A.’s own front office that would hint at a belief of that being true. The Rams know what they are, why is it going to take everyone else a few lackluster games or a blockbuster trade to keep up with the fact that they’re in the middle of a complete overhaul, and not trying to avoid one?

That “we’re the normal Rams/we’re not the normal Rams” continued on Thursday with head coach Sean McVay telling the media that receiver Cooper Kupp had a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury and that his status for Week 1 against the Seahawks is in doubt.

I’ll spoil that for you too: Cooper Kupp ain’t playing against no Seahawks.

I’ll get more into it over the weekend, but me saying that the Rams look like a very bad team is much different than me guaranteeing a Seahawks victory. We can make rational statements about NFL teams without needing it to be a prediction, right? A rational statement, one based completely in fact, is that the L.A. Rams have torn down their roster and only have three players on either side of the ball who could start for all 31 other teams. Or even half of the other teams.

(Matthew Stafford wouldn’t start over every other QB, but he’s definitely a starter.)

It’s well known that the Rams traded Jalen Ramsey and cut Bobby Wagner and did what they had to do in order to gut the roster down to the cheapest possible version that would still be able to field 53 players. There’s nothing wrong with doing what’s needed and that’s what the Rams needed to do in order to rebuild for their next Super Bowl push, whether that’s in 2024 or 2025 or 2030.

It is not in 2023.

The Rams tried to talk to teams about trading Stafford, but nobody has been willing to take on his contract. In all three cases, Stafford, Kupp, and Aaron Donald, the financial ramifications of a trade would have brought more bad than good to L.A.’s salary cap, but I fully believe that they’re going to have conversations to see what they can get by the trading deadline. The fact that the team has almost exclusively practiced without Kupp—their best trade asset—in training camp should raise some eyebrows.

Especially because Kupp was also excused from almost all offseason workouts, and Donald did the same, getting excused absences from mandatory practices and probably more rest days that on-days throughout training camp. But nobody talks about that.

If Kupp is held out of Week 1 against the Seahawks, in theory then it would be Matthew Stafford throwing to Van Jefferson (missed half of 2022, wasn’t good), Ben Skowronek (2021 seventh round pick, isn’t a good receiver), Puka Nacua (fifth round rookie), Demarcus Robinson (cheap free agent), and Tutu Atwell (2021 second round pick who has 18 career catches for 298 yards).

His offensive line is left tackle A.J. Jackson (former UDFA with six career starts), left guard Steve Avila (second round rookie), center Coleman Shelton (two career starts at center, 13 at guard), right guard Tremayne Anchrum (one career start), and right tackle Rob Havenstein (veteran).

That’s just my assumption, as McVay apparently won’t name a starting offensive line until days before the game; L.A. has held competitions at all but two positions. I’ve seen people in the media and fans talk about the Rams as if they have a great offense and are only questioning if the defense (the second-most experienced player on that side of the ball is cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, a player who couldn’t make the Seahawks a couple years ago) can hold opponents under 30. But I’m not sure how the Rams are supposed to protect Stafford or score points even when they do have Kupp.

By any signs we don’t choose to ignore, the Rams don’t seem in a hurry to get Kupp back by Week 1.

Dave Canales Update (Worried)

I like to share updates from The QB School on YouTube when applicable to the Seahawks, but this one is a little different. It doesn’t relate to the current Seahawks and not even to a quarterback, but instead to former Seattle QBs coach Dave Canales.

Now the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers—which I recently noted is such a difficult assignment for a first-time OC—it seems like Canales is getting the brunt of the criticism in this breakdown from J.T. O’Sullivan.

Almost every play call gets a “What’re we doin’ here?” from O’Sullivan, who admits he doesn’t even know who the OC is in Tampa Bay but that seems even more damning. Yes it is only the preseason, but O’Sullivan watches a lot of preseason film and this is the harshest criticism I’ve seen from him related to play designs and calls.

The problem could be related to Baker Mayfield—it seems like the Bucs were afraid to give him any plays besides checkdowns and screens—but as I said, I worry for Canales that he’s a one-and-done. Tampa Bay’s coaching staff and QBs enter the season on the hot seat, so Canales may not get a do-over or second chance, even if he wasn’t the one who picked the players.

On the shortest list of teams who are competing with the Cardinals for the number one pick in 2024, you will find the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Speaking of the Cards and The QB School, Arizona’s potential Week 1 starter Clayton Tune apparently looks even worse than you expected from a fifth round rookie.

I’ve got Pete Carroll interview exhaustion

It was fun the first few times. Now I can’t keep up and I’m just exhausted of everyone getting their hour with Pete Carroll. Maybe that’s unfair, but I mean we just finished listening to him on the Richard Sherman podcast, right? If you watched this entire interview on The KJ Wright Show you can tell us in the comments if there’s any great revelations we didn’t already know.

Get pumped for Drake Thomas

If you watch this video, you will come away thinking that the Seahawks just claimed Zach Thomas off of waivers, not Drake Thomas.

It’ll be a steal if he’s merely 10% better than Tanner Muse, but I’m pumped anyway.

I will write over 1.5 million words about the Seattle Seahawks in the year 2023, and over 1 million of those are free. But they don’t all have to be if you have just $5 to spare for all the work spent on Seaside Joe, not just the bonus content. Regular Joes get 1.48 million of those words, and Super Joes just get that slight touch more.

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