It’s only been about eight months since Cooper Kupp tore his ACL, but Cooper Kupp has made the recovery process seem easy. In organized team activities and minicamp, he went through individual drills and participated in some team sessions. It was an impressive feat for a player who suffered a significant knee injury half a year prior, and he’s only made even more progress since.
In the Rams’ first practice of training camp on Saturday, Kupp was out there catching passes from Jared Goff, just as he has all offseason. He’s worked hard to get to this point, attacking his rehab and making sure to check every box along the way.
“I’m tripping over myself, I’m so juiced. I just feel like I’m running over myself right now,” Kupp said after practice. “That stuff will all calm down once I settle into a groove. My body feels great, excited to be back.”
Kupp was cleared for practice before camp began and wasn’t placed on the physically unable to perform list, which was a great sign for his health.
From the clips posted on social media, and according to those in attendance for practice, Kupp looked like he was moving well and running at just about full speed. He doesn’t seem hesitant to push his body and his knee when on the practice field, another positive development for the third-year receiver.
Without the proper preparation, Kupp admits there’s room for hesitation and hurdles to go full speed.
“There can be, but if you put in the time and do the work off the field, when you’re doing everything you can in the other 22 hours in the day than the two hours you come out here, you feel pretty confident to let loose, let it fly,” he said. “Just playing football. When you step on the field, you stop worrying about the knees, stop worrying about anything else. It’s just going out there and playing football.”
During practice, Kupp made a nice leaping grab in traffic, showing no ill-effects from his torn ACL eight months ago. Instincts kick in when the ball is thrown his direction, freeing him from any thoughts about his knee.
“Even more so when the ball’s in the air, you’re not thinking about it,” Kupp said. “When the ball’s in the air as a receiver, you want to be a frisbee-catching dog out there. You see it in the air, you go get it.”
