Los Angeles Rams star Cooper Kupp is showing the NFL that he belongs in the conversation for best receiver given the historic season he is having.
Seemingly every week, Kupp is breaking some sort of record. In the Rams’ Week 17 win over the Baltimore Ravens, Kupp broke Isaac Bruce’s single-season record for receiving yards that the legend previously set in 1995.
Kupp finished the day with six receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown and now sits at 1,829 receiving yards during the 2021 season.
Kupp is on the verge of breaking the league records for receptions and receiving yards, needing 12 receptions and 136 yards in Week 18 against their rivals the San Francisco 49ers to do so. But he admitted those hold different meaning because they were set in a 16-game season, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN:
“We’re in a new age of football here,” Kupp said. “We’re playing 17 games of football a year, and a lot of the stuff that happened before that, those records hold a different weight, being that they were played in those 16 games.”
The wideout added that even if he were to break the records they should be separated because of the number of games it took:
“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,” Kupp said. “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 those guys had and the seasons they put together. Those are incredible things, incredible accomplishments. You kind of have to separate the two.”
Being the team player that he is, Kupp added that he is only focused on the Rams’ Week 18 matchup against the 49ers:
“My priorities are going out and winning this game this week, whatever it takes to win it,” Kupp said when asked if it was a priority to earn the records. “If it means spending more time blocking defensive ends and being able to get Sony [Michel] sprung for some big gains, that would be huge. I just want to do my job, whatever they ask of me, I just want to do my job over and over again and be a part of helping this team win.”
Kupp has been humble throughout the year every time his historic season is brought up, but should he break the reception and receiving yards records it will still be worth celebrating.
Ultimately he is right though as the main focus should be on winning the game in order to clinch the NFC West and head into the postseason on a six-game winning streak, perhaps knocking the 49ers out of contention in the process.
