LA Rams Cooper Kupp was 2021 NFC OPOY and SB MVP. What’s next?

The LA Rams certainly hit the jackpot in 2021, didn’t they?  I mean, who would have guessed that veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford would set the Rams’ All-Time Single Season record? Okay, we did, and that was a rather cheap way to get that little factoid in there. But, to be fair, the feedback in the comments section for that article was pretty harsh. So we get our mandatory last laugh. Now, for the good stuff.  Stafford’s chemistry with wide receiver Cooper Kupp was sensational all season long, but never on full display like in the second half of Super Bowl LVI.

And we expect that to continue.

The 2021 resurgence of WR Cooper Kupp certainly was a pleasant surprise, wasn’t it? Well, more like availability through the entire playoffs. That’s always been a bit of a concern for Rams fans. The team appeared in the 2018 NFL playoffs without Kupp and lost in Super Bowl LIII due to a struggling offense. Would Kupp have made a difference? It would have been nice to know.

Where’s Cooper?

His absence in the 2020 NFL Playoffs, when the LA Rams traveled to face the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round, was one more occasion where the Rams offense could have used Kupp.  Would Kupp have made a difference? It would have been nice to know there too.

And that was all the background leading up to the 2021 NFL season. For years in the NFL, a player who flirted with 1,000 yards each year. He improved each season: In precise route running, blocking, and most of all, catching the football.  Kupp, alongside teammate Robert Woods, had formed a solid bond and were impressive complements to one another in the Rams’ pass-centric offense.

In 2019, both Kupp and Woods put up over 1,000-yard seasons.  In 2020, both were oh-so-close to achieving the 1,000-yard plateau but fell short.  Then, 2021 happened. Woods fell to injury, and Kupp had the type of season that was simply unbelievably effective.

Oh, just a Kupple of NFL awards

We know just how valuable wide receiver Cooper Kupp was to the LA Rams offense, and for that matter, to the team as a whole, in the 2021 NFL season. While you may not need the reminder of just how good his season truly was, it’s just too much fun to do. So let’s revisit one of the most incredible single seasons by any NFL player in this millennium.

For starters, he won the NFC Offensive Player of the Year. As if that didn’t punctuate his 2021 NFL season with an exclamation point…

He was named the MVP of Super Bowl LVI.

What kind of a season did the guy put together? Well, he set the Rams All-Time Franchise Single-Season record for receptions and receiving yards. He fell just one shy of the record for receiving touchdowns by one. He was the 2021 NFL receiver triple-crown winner: Meaning he topped all other receivers in the regular season with receptions (145), yards (1,947), and touchdowns (16).  Here’s what that all looks like in summary form.

While that is one helluva season and an incredible debut for his first year catching passes from QB Matthew Stafford, the question now is: What should fans expect for the 2022 NFL season?

Kupp still has plenty of upside in this offense

The 2021 NFL season, in all honesty, was the culmination of a perfect storm for the offense. In essence, the LA Rams did not have a strong running game throughout most of the season. Making matters worse, with the exception of Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson, the entire receiving group was a rather dynamic set of players.

The Rams began the season with Robert Woods and DeSean Jackson as the other two main receivers. By the time the season had reached Week 10, Stafford was throwing to Odell Beckham Jr. and Ben Skowronek. That made for a lot of challenges to the team’s offense and increased the focus and pressure upon Kupp to make the catches.

Fortunately, Kupp did exactly that.

The Ram’s offense gained nearly 4,900 yards through the air and just 1,683 yards on the ground. If the offense is able to sort out the challenges to the running game, will that automatically be offset by a decline in passing yardage? And perhaps even beyond that, will Cooper Kupp’s numbers suffer in 2022?

Plenty of room for another great season

Stafford’s 2021 performance under center for the LA Rams was pretty standard Stafford stuff. His 4,886 yards passing was only the third-highest total in his career, and he had thrown for 41 touchdowns before.  So whether or not the running attack improves, Stafford should be good for a similar type of season in 2022. Perhaps even better? After all, some INTs and incompletions seemed to occur as the offense attempted to synch in new receivers to the aerial assault.

If wide receiver Allen Robinson can tack on a 1200 yard season, and Van Jefferson holds his own at 800 yards, then Cooper Kupp will likely fall into the 1,500-1,600 yard range for 2022. That decline will not come from any decline in his production, but simply a drop in targets from 191 to a more manageable 150 this year. At 150 targets, his number would look like this:

• 150 targets
• 115 receptions
• 1600 yards
• 13 touchdowns

That is a positive development, as the Rams will want to have Kupp as fresh as possible for a run at Super Bowl LVII at the season’s end.