Cooper Kupp is just one of several new key components to an offense that the Seattle Seahawks hope is much more efficient. How efficient it can be won't be known until well into the 2025 season. This is what happens when a team has potentially four new starters on one side of the ball.
To be clear, the Seahawks' success this coming season won't be based on the offense scoring more than 30 points a game. The team's success will be based on how elite the defense is. This offseason, general manager John Schneider made a concerted effort to make sure the defense came back basically intact.
The offense? Not so much.
Cooper Kupp excited to play with new Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold
For the offense to reach its maximum potential, the players have to pick up the nuances of new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's playbook and do so quickly. The team cannot go three or four games into the season with the offense still trying to figure things out.
Thankfully, Kupp says new quarterback Sam Darnold is driven to master Kubiak's scheme and make sure his teammates know it, too. If Darnold can limit his past mistakes, and Kubiak helps him do that, the offense should score more than enough to help an improving defense and get the Seahawks back to at least 10 wins. That might be just enough to get the Seahawks into the playoffs.
Kupp recently told Fox 13 Seattle's Curtis Crabtree, "We're going to get there (as an offense) and because of the urgency of guys like Sam who see when it's not right and can say, 'Hey, this is how it has to be to make this thing go against this look and how we're going to be able to attack this defense, this is where I need guys to be.' Now, I love that."
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Darnold is still a huge risk signing for the Seahawks in 2025 free agency, but there are reasons for hope. He did well for the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, and the Vikings' offensive line was no better in pass protection than Seattle's was last season. The Seahawks' offensive line could be much better this year with the addition of first-round pick Grey Zabel.
Kubiak's system resembles the one Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell ran, too, so maybe it's a great fit for Darnold. The quarterback struggled in the final two games of last year, but that shouldn't completely overshadow the work he did in the first 16 games.
While Darnold won't have the same level of receiver group he had with Minnesota, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is very good for Seattle, and Kupp's experience should also help others acclimate to Kubiak's scheme.
The Seahawks are taking a big gamble that Sam Darnold will be better than had the team had kept Geno Smith and gotten him to buy into what the team was trying to do. Darnold has never been a long-term success in the NFL. Still, he at least has the correct approach to the 2025 season, and Cooper Kupp is fully behind him.