Los Angeles Rams: The forgotten importance of Cooper Kupp

Cooper Kupp has quietly become one of the most important offensive pieces on the Los Angeles Rams and his absence last season certainly proved it.

The Los Angeles Rams looked head and shoulders above the rest of the National Football League to start the 2018 season. Not only did the Rams have a lengthy undefeated run but the team was putting teams away with ease.

Expecting the team to go undefeated was setting up for failure but it was not crazy to think that the Rams were the best team in the NFL. However, late in the season, the same team that was so dominant to start the year looked human; there were legitimate worries that the Rams peaked.

The offense was not as explosive and elite running back Todd Gurley was banged up. The defense was not as good as expected and it is safe to say that the New Orleans Saints were the consensus favorites out of the NFC heading into the playoffs.

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The Rams were obviously able to get through the NFC side of the playoffs but had the same sluggish offense in the Super Bowl, which led to a 13-3 victory for the New England Patriots.

A big reason for the Rams’ humanization late in the season, aside from Gurley not being 100 percent, of course, was losing Jared Goff‘s favorite deep target, Cooper Kupp.

Kupp played just eight games, going down against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10 with a torn ACL. While the Rams followed that game with the historic Monday Night Football slugfest with the Kansas City Chiefs, the offense was not the same following Kupp’s injury.

Goff had more 250 or more passing yards just one time after the bye week without Kupp in the lineup. Goff had more than 250 yards in six of the eight games that Kupp played during the year.

Even if Kupp was not the leading receiver in the game, he opened up the playbook for the offense as he was constantly a deep threat for Goff. With him out of the lineup, the Rams’ offense became more predictable and teams were able to pick up on trends and pick the offense apart.

It seems as if people are forgetting how impactful Kupp was to this offense. While it is still unclear if he will be ready by Week 1, when Kupp is ready he is going to have a noticeable and significant impact on this offense.

The Rams will look like the early season version of the 2018 Rams once more and even if the defense is not as solid, the Rams will out-will teams with offensive onslaughts.

The Los Angeles Rams are at their best form when Cooper Kupp is playing, so don’t worry too much about the team’s underachieving offense from late in the season.