Cooper Kupp wasn't around in the first season of Mike Macdonald being the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He didn't need to be, really. What the coach said before last season was the same as he said the season before, and will likely be the same before this coming season.
Macdonald has a way of doing things, and as Kupp told Rich Eisen on the host's eponymously named show on Wednesday, that includes "punching people in the mouth," figuratively speaking. Repetition, aggression, and mentality matter with Macdonald, and Kupp knows it.
Kupp told Eisen, in part, "When Mike got here, he laid out what the plan was and what it was going to look like...and how we were gonna operate...It's very simple, but it's not easy...We're just gonna lean into doing the simple things at a very high level. We're gonna show up, and we're gonna work. We're going to challenge each other. We're gonna talk honestly with one another...You're gonna come here and we're gonna punch people in the mouth."
Cooper Kupp delivers the reality of having Mike Macdonald with the Seattle Seahawks
Of course, that last bit is exactly what Seattle did in 2025. The team might have run the ball a tad bit more than other teams, but that's because the system worked. It was that type of stone-cold approach, both offensively and defensively, that helped lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory.
That mentality is also what Mike Macdonald has used his entire coaching career, both in the NFL as a defensive coach and in college, especially as the defensive coordinator for the University of Michigan. Everywhere he has gone, he has been successful, and winning a championship in only his second season as a head coach cannot be overlooked.
In other words, what Mike Macdonald says, he means, and he knows that what he says is meaningful and based on success. That is why players have bought, and will continue to buy into what the Seahawks coach espouses: the players know they can win, especially defensively.
That is also what makes what Cooper Kupp said to Rich Eisen matter, too. He doesn't play defense, which means that Mike Macdonald is able to connect with all players on the Seattle Seahawks' roster. That isn't going to change, and, likely, neither will the team's sustained level of success.
Maybe the team won't win the Super Bowl every season, though that would be nice, but the franchise in the Pacific Northwest might be in a position to contend well into the future. Coaching matters, of course, and 12s are likely as thankful as Cooper Kupp that Macdonald is leading the team right now.
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