Seahawks Succeeding In Part Because They Do ‘The Things That Don’t Show Up In The Stat Book’

It may sound like an obvious thing that having unselfish players can lead to team success, but that isn’t as easy to bring to life as it is to simply talk about. Big stats lead to accolades and awards, they lead to more media attention, and most importantly in a sport with relatively short careers, those numbers can lead to bigger contracts.

So as much as every team might go into a season wanting to have a 53-man roster and a practice squad full of people who want to play for each other, that’s not always what actually happens. But it’s something this Seahawks team has been able to use as one of its key traits on its way to a 10-3 record.

“For you to be a good team—the good teams in this league do that stuff,” Kupp said. “The bad teams don’t. Point blank, period. You can do all the other stuff you want to do, whatever. All your analysis of all different things. It’s the guys that do the things that don’t show up in the stat book at a very high level, those teams have opportunities to play meaningful games at this point in the year. Yeah, without a doubt that’s a common denominator all the way through.”

Quarterback Sam Darnold has been on some really good teams in his career, as well as some not so successful ones, and he sees the same thing as Kupp when it comes to this team’s unselfish play.

“There are a lot of guys that don’t care about stats,” Darnold said. “They just want to win. That’s all of our guys on this team. It’s very rare, but it’s something special about this team, like Coop mentioned. But there are a ton of them. The one group that sticks out to me with that is the offensive line, right, because I feel like the only time they get any type of attention is when it’s bad. Whether it’s a false start, the announcer is calling their name, and then sacks, those show up on the stat sheet. There is nothing that really shows up — unless it’s a big running game and you don’t have any sacks on the game, but there is nothing really where they get like a ton of praise. So I think those guys’ just unselfishness in that room is unlike any other.”

That it was Kupp leading the conversation about the team’s selflessness this week seems fitting for those who have been around him this season. Again, he isn’t lighting up the stat sheet on a weekly basis, but whether it is his blocking or the routes he runs when the ball isn’t finding him or the plays he makes when the ball does, Kupp is still a huge part of the offense’s success, and the impact he has on the team throughout the week is an equally big factor.

“I would say any winning team you’ve ever been on, you have the unselfish individuals that make up the sum of the parts,” offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said. “I think Coop epitomizes that, he’s the ultimate teammate, ultimate unselfish guy. When your best players are guys like him, the young guys follow suit, the coaches follow suit, and it just becomes part of the culture.”