Sam Darnold has high praise for Seahawks' new $45,000,000 star receiver

The 2024 Seattle Seahawks offensive unit featured quarterback Geno Smith, wide receivers DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Of those four players, only Smith-Njigba remains with the organization.

This offseason, the Seahawks were extremely active in free agency, bringing in an almost entirely new offensive unit with a new quarterback and a new star wide receiver.

Seattle signed quarterback Sam Darnold to a three-year deal worth $100.5 million and wide receiver Cooper Kupp to a three-year contract worth $45 million.

On May 29, Darnold opened up about being teammates with Kupp so far and what he has noticed about the receiver’s unique skill set. The comments were made on the popular "Rich Eisen Show."

"Coop (Cooper Kupp) is amazing," Darnold said. "The way he moves is very unique, I think. Being able to get a ton of reps with him and just see how he kind of gets in and out of routes, like I said, it’s different.

"That’s what made him such a great player, just the way you know he can make certain routes look the same and he ends up in a completely different spot. It’s very unique and he is different that way. So just being able to get those reps with him has been amazing." (9:19 mark onwards)

Can Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp lead the Seahawks to success?

Darnold and Kupp are both at interesting points in their respective careers. Darnold is coming off his best NFL season and appears to have finally become a star quarterback in the league. Meanwhile, Kupp had one of the worst statistical seasons of his NFL career last year and was released by the LA Rams this offseason.

Despite this, Kupp still has the skills to succeed in the NFL, even if he is not the No. 1 option in the Seattle offense. By all accounts, Smith-Njigba will be the Seahawks’ WR1 in 2025 after a phenomenal campaign last year.

With two top wide receivers in Smith-Njigba and Kupp and a top quarterback in Darnold now in Seattle, expectations are sky-high this season for the Seahawks to return to the postseason for the first time since the 2022 season.