Zac Taylor: Cooper Kupp is one of the smartest…

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Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has plenty of familiarity with one of the Bengals’ biggest challenges in next week’s Super Bowl LVI: Rams receiver Cooper Kupp.

Taylor was the Rams assistant receivers coach in 2017, Kupp’s rookie year. Taylor was then promoted to Los Angeles’ quarterbacks coach in 2018 before Cincinnati hired him following the Rams’ loss in Super Bowl LIII.

As Taylor explained on Thursday, he was a part of Kupp’s private workout for the Rams at Eastern Washington and their relationship grew from there.

“He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around at any position. He really approaches the game like a quarterback to be quite honest with you,” Taylor said, via Jake Rice of the Bengals’ website. “Coop [is] a big picture thinker. So he really understands the structure of the defenses, the nuances of the route running. He cares about the run game as well. There’s oftentimes he would screenshot pictures of defenses with run thoughts.

”You would wake up the next morning to a midnight text from Cooper Kupp with thoughts on things that could help the offense. He’s certainly rare that way.”

Kupp’s ability to translate what goes on above-the-neck into his performance has made him one of the best receivers in the league. He’s the first receiver to ever reach 2,000 yards combined in the regular season and postseason — registering 170 catches for 2,333 yards in 20 games.

“He has great change of direction. He has really good quickness,” Taylor said. “He never goes down on first contact. That’s one thing if you watch him, he never goes willingly out of bounds. Never goes down on first contact. He’s really strong. He’s a lot like Ja’Marr [Chase] that way. I think they’re very similar in the run-after-the-catch.

“He understands the defense’s approach. I always remember he had a lot of conversations with the DBs. What they were thinking. ‘When I line up here, what do you think I’m going to do?’ He’s able to play off a lot of the stuff that he noticed the defense is approaching him with.”

If the Bengals are going to defeat the Rams next Sunday, Taylor and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo will have to figure out a way to at least contain Kupp’s production. The receiver is averaging 129 yards per game in the postseason and has four touchdowns.