As the Seattle Seahawks inch closer to the biggest night of the NFL calendar, the Super Bowl, wide receiver Cooper Kupp has managed to steal some pregame attention. And he didn’t have to say a single word.
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Just days before Seattle’s clash with New England, Kupp posted a series of training photos on Instagram with the caption, “Final Weekend at the VMAC… Next stop, the Bay.” Most of the snaps seemed routine, showing route work and timing reps. One image, however, stood out immediately. It showed Kupp mid-motion, the football leaving his hand, in a proper throwing motion.
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And as it turned out, that single frame was enough to set social media buzzing. Fans instantly began speculating whether Seattle was quietly cooking up a trick play for the Super Bowl. “Kupp is basically exposing that he is attempting a pass in the SB,” one fan wrote in a viral post that garnered over a million views and 20k likes.
Kupp is basically exposing that he is attempting a pass in the SB pic.twitter.com/rHSlIen8le
— Bando (@BandoKnowsBall) February 2, 2026
In reply, one fan pushed back on the trick play theory, suggesting it was more likely a harmless throw: “Or just throwing the ball back to whoever threw him the ball lol.” Others weren’t so forgiving, referencing Kupp’s trick play against the Texans that was picked. “After the last one let’s hope not,” one comment read, while another confidently predicted, “It’s gonna be a fake pass.”
That INT context is why the photo has garnered so much attention on social media. While it is true that a receiver casually throwing in warmups isn’t unusual, it’s harder to ignore when the same player already has a failed trick-pass on tape.
That said, trick plays have always been part of the football lore, and Seattle has its own history here. The most memorable wide receiver pass in franchise history came in 2016, when Doug Baldwin hit Russell Wilson for a touchdown against Philadelphia. The Seahawks have also experimented with double passes and flea-flickers in recent seasons, proving the concept isn’t foreign to their playbook.
Moreover, recent Super Bowls have featured wide receivers and skill players throwing passes… sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Jauan Jennings’ touchdown throw to Christian McCaffrey two years ago is still fresh in fans’ minds, even if it came in a losing effort.
The appeal is obvious: when teams clash at the Super Bowl, they have nearly 19-20 games of tape of each other. In these circumstances, the best way to get an edge is to execute the unpredictable. And it looks like head coach Mike Macdonald is trying to execute that element of surprise with Cooper Kupp at the helm.
