Cooper Kupp quietly did something never previously done in Super Bowl history

Cooper Kupp’s return to his home state proved to be a storybook reunion. The former Offensive Player of the Year had a fantastic postseason for the Seattle Seahawks, catching 15 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown over three games. Technically speaking, his TD against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship win was the winning score, a poetic result given the messy exit from his old team.

With the New England Patriots keyed in on stopping Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kupp stepped up as the Seahawks’ leading receiver, hauling in a team-high six passes for 61 yards. It might not have been the Super Bowl MVP performance he had with the Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals, but he was still an important piece of the passing offense.

Kupp also made a bit of history along the way. Through some extensive research on Stathead, I perused the Super Bowl box scores to determine the leading receiver (by yards) in all 60 editions of the big game. While there have been multiple players who’ve led their team in receiving yards in Super Bowl wins (notably Travis Kelce and Jerry Rice), no one has done it like the former Eastern Washington star.

Cooper Kupp is the first player in NFL history to be the Super Bowl single-game receiving yards leader for two different franchises.

Every Super Bowl single-game leading receiver

Super Bowl	Player	Team	Receiving Yards
60	Cooper Kupp	Seattle Seahawks	61
59	Devonta Smith	Philadelphia Eagles	69
58	Travis Kelce	Kansas City Chiefs	93
57	Travis Kelce	Kansas City Chiefs	81
56	Cooper Kupp	Los Angeles Rams	92
55	Rob Gronkowski (TE)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	67
54	Tyreek Hill	Kansas City Chiefs	105
53	Julian Edelman	New England Patriots	141
52	Corey Clement (RB)	Philadelphia Eagles	100
51	James White (RB)	New England Patriots	110
50	Emmanuel Sanders	Denver Broncos	83
49	Julian Edelman	New England Patriots	109
48	Doug Baldwin	Seattle Seahawks	66
47	Anquan Boldin	Baltimore Ravens	104
46	Hakeem Nicks	New York Giants	109
45	Jordy Nelson	Green Bay Packers	140
44	Marques Colston	New Orleans Saints	83
43	Santonio Holmes	Pittsburgh Steelers	131
42	Amani Toomer	New York Giants	84
41	Joseph Addai (RB)	Indianapolis Colts	66
40	Hines Ward	Pittsburgh Steelers	123
39	Deion Branch	New England Patriots	133
38	Deion Branch	New England Patriots	143
37	Joe Jurevicius	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	78
36	Troy Brown	New England Patriots	89
35	Brandon Stokley	Baltimore Ravens	52
34	Isaac Bruce	St. Louis Rams	162
33	Rod Smith	Denver Broncos	152
32	Ed McCaffrey	Denver Broncos	72
31	Antonio Freeman	Green Bay Packers	105
30	Michael Irvin	Dallas Cowboys	76
29	Jerry Rice	San Francisco 49ers	149
28	Alvin Harper	Dallas Cowboys	75
27	Michael Irvin	Dallas Cowboys	114
26	Gary Clark	Washington	114
25	Mark Ingram	New York Giants	74
24	Jerry Rice	San Francisco 49ers	148
23	Jerry Rice	San Francisco 49ers	215
22	Ricky Sanders	Washington	193
21	Stacy Robinson	New York Giants	62
20	Willie Gault	Chicago Bears	129
19	Roger Craig (RB) and Dwight Clark (TE)	San Francisco 49ers	77
18	Cliff Branch	Los Angeles Raiders	96
17	Charlie Brown	Washington	60
16	Freddie Solomon	San Francisco 49ers	52
15	Kenny King (RB)	Oakland Raiders	93
14	John Stallworth	Pittsburgh Steelers	121
13	Lynn Swann	Pittsburgh Steelers	124
12	Billy Joe DuPree (TE)	Dallas Cowboys	66
11	Fred Biletnikoff	Oakland Raiders	79
10	Lynn Swann	Pittsburgh Steelers	161
9	Larry Brown (TE)	Pittsburgh Steelers	49
8	Paul Warfield	Miami Dolphins	33
7	Paul Warfield	Miami Dolphins	36
6	Lance Alworth and Mike Ditka (TE)	Dallas Cowboys	28
5	John Mackey (TE)	Baltimore Colts	80
4	Otis Taylor	Kansas City Chiefs	81
3	Matt Snell (RB)	New York Jets	40
2	Boyd Dowler	Green Bay Packers	71
1	Max McGee	Green Bay Packers	138

(All data here collected through Stathead)

Kupp joins Paul Warfield, Lynn Swann, Cliff Branch, Jerry Rice, Michael Irvin, Deion Branch, Julian Edelman, and Travis Kelce on the list of players who’ve had a team-high in receiving yards at least twice in a Super Bowl win. Those other eight guys, most of whom are or will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had their accomplishments happen with the same organization.

What a postseason from Kupp, what a performance in the Super Bowl—don’t forget it was his 3rd and 9 conversion that led to the A.J. Barner touchdown—and what a story for the Yakima native to return to Washington and win it all with the team he grew up rooting for.

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