SAN FRANCISCO — What began as a quiet idea — a quarterback tossing routes with a handful of his receivers under the Southern California sun — has now turned into something closer to a rite of passage for a team that didn’t fully know itself yet.
Last summer, before the 2025 season ever found its footing, and just a few months after Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp signed on with the Seahawks, Seattle’s newest duo opened a door to their teammates.
They invited every wide receiver and tight end on the Seahawks roster to Los Angeles, where both live in the offseason, for private throwing sessions at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village.
No cameras. No banners. Just grass, routes, sweat, and time together.
The workouts were never meant to be anything more than a chance to throw, but after the workouts came the part that made the difference.
Instead of heading back to their respective homes, everyone in attendance for the secret workouts headed back to Kupp’s house as long afternoons bled into evenings where football took a back seat to relationship building.
“That was so cool,” Kupp said with a smile on his face. “Guys would come back to my house and swim, play some basketball — I think Sam won a lot of those basketball games. Don’t ask him that, because he’ll probably want to gloat about that one.”
Kupp paused, then landed the point.
“It was great just being around the guys and doing something that was technically work, but was actually about spending time together. We went to dinner together. It was a special thing.”
Cody White, however, would like the record to reflect that Darnold did not dominate the hardwood.
“I don’t know what Sam told you,” White said, grinning, “but I definitely won in basketball. A lot of basketball was played, a lot of swimming. It was a lot of just hanging out with the guys.”
Basketball debates aside, there was one unanimous verdict: the food.
“I can’t remember the name of the restaurant Sam took us to,” White told The Post, “but it was fire. It had the best seafood.”
The group included Kupp, Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jake Bobo, John Rhys Plumlee, Eric Saubert, AJ Barner and White. Some were already in Southern California. Others flew in. All of them showed up.
Offseason throwing sessions aren’t rare in the NFL. What made this one different was the tone. Darnold, by his own admission, isn’t wired to be the loudest voice in the room.
“I’m not going to be super vocal unless I have to be on the field,” Darnold said during OTAs in June. “If it calls for that, I will be. But I’m definitely not a guy to force myself into talking much.”
So he didn’t force anything. He invited.
“We only get a month off in the summer,” Darnold said. “I always think it’s important to allow everybody to have time off. I leave it open-ended. If you guys want to come, you can.”
They came.
Head coach Mike Macdonald noticed.
“I think it set them up to have a better start,” Macdonald said. “And that’s really important.”
Bobo felt it more personally. The former UCLA standout said the value wasn’t just in the routes thrown, but in everything that happened once the cleats came off.
“The biggest thing was just getting off the field,” Bobo said. “All the time we spent together had been in the facility. So being able to go down there to L.A., mess around with the guys — that helped us massively in the receivers room.”
Then he went further.
“If not for those sessions,” Bobo said, “I don’t think it would be as fun or more enjoyable to do what we’re doing. Maybe we wouldn’t be here without them. This is a really special group. I have relationships with guys on this team that I haven’t had with guys on any team, and that’s rare in the NFL.”
The Seahawks are now playing for a championship. That matters.
But Macdonald sees something else.
“It speaks to the connection,” he said. “We talk about ‘12 as One’ around here. This wasn’t driven by me. That was totally driven by Sam, Coop, and the rest of the guys.”
Smith-Njigba said the intent was clear from the moment Darnold arrived.
“He started planning that trip as soon as he got signed,” said Smith-Njigba, the favorite to win the Offensive Player of the Year Award winner in the NFL. “It was crucial coming out of minicamp, knowing the offense and what it’s supposed to look like.”
For Darnold, who has now worn five different NFL jerseys, the sessions offered something harder to earn than reps.
Trust.
“Being at Coop’s house, spending time with the guys, getting to know everybody and their personalities was really helpful,” Darnold said. “You’re always trying to earn people’s trust, and we were able to do that in those sessions.”
Now, months later, the secret is out. The routes are sharper. The timing cleaner. The bond unmistakable.
“Stuff like that,” Smith-Njigba said, “is the reason we’re here today.”
