Agent’s Take: Cooper Kupp trade ramifications as Rams prepare to cut ties with former Super Bowl MVP WR

Cooper Kupp is going to be in a different uniform next season. The wide receiver revealed on Feb. 3 that the Los Angeles Rams put him on the trading block. The Rams reportedly aren’t interested in reworking Kupp’s contract to keep him around. Puka Nacua has clearly emerged as the Rams’ primary receiving option.

The desire to move on from Kupp shouldn’t be a surprise. There were rumors of Kupp being available in a trade early last season. The trade speculation ended as the Rams rebounded from a 1-4 start.

Kupp has two years worth $39.58 million remaining on the three-year, $80.35 million contract extension, averaging $26,783,333 per year, he signed in June 2022. His contract needed to be addressed after a 2021 season in which he became the first player to win the receiving triple crown since Steve Smith in 2005 by simultaneously leading the league in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16).

Kupp is scheduled to make $20 million in 2025 and $19.78 million in 2026 with respective $29.78 million and $27.33 million salary cap numbers. The $20 million consists of a $12.5 million base salary and a $7.5 million fifth day of the league year roster bonus that’s due on March 16 where $5 million of this $7.5 million is fully guaranteed without an offset. 

The Rams may be required to take on some of Kupp’s 2025 salary in order to facilitate a trade. Kupp will be 32 in June and has had a hard time staying healthy since being the 2021 NFL Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl LVI MVP. He’s missed 18 regular-season games over the last three seasons with ankle and hamstring injuries. Kupp has averaged 67 catches for 753 yards with nearly six touchdowns in 11 games during this span.

A high ankle sprain cost Kupp five games in 2024. He had 67 receptions, 710 yards receiving and six touchdown catches in 12 games last season.

Several accomplished older wide receivers (Keenan Allen, Brandin Cooks, Amari Cooper, Stefon Diggs and DeAndre Hopkins) are going to be available in free agency. Davante Adams and Tyler Lockett are expected to be salary cap casualties. There’s also competition in the wide receiver trade market as the San Francisco 49ers have granted Deebo Samuel, who is 29, permission to find a trading partner.

It isn’t unprecedented for the Rams to eat salary to move a wide receiver. The Rams waited until after Robert Woods‘ fully guaranteed $3.5 million fifth day of the league year roster bonus was due in 2022 before trading him to the Tennessee Titans. Woods got the entire $13.5 million he was scheduled to make in 2022. The Titans were comfortable paying Woods the remaining $10 million although he was recovering from a left ACL tear that occurred during the middle of the 2021 season.

The Rams were motivated to get rid of Allen Robinson after a disastrous 2022 debut season in Los Angeles where a foot injury limited him to 10 games. A willingness by the Rams to pay $10.25 million of Robinson’s fully guaranteed $15.25 million 2023 compensation made his April 2023 trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers possible. Robinson reworked his contract in connection with the trade. The other $5 million for 2023 wasn’t touched but his 2024 salary was reduced to $10 million from $15.75 million.

The Rams shouldn’t have an issue being responsible for Kupp’s entire $7.5 million roster bonus in a trade because of Robinson and Woods. The Rams would have $24.76 million of dead money, a salary cap charge for a player no longer on a team’s roster, in this instance. There would be $5.02 million of 2025 cap savings as the Rams would no longer be contending with Kupp’s $29.78 million 2025 cap number. The Rams actually lost $3.4 million of 2023 cap space in the Robinson trade.

Potential Kupp compensation

Only a team like the New England Patriots with an abundance of 2025 salary cap space and a glaring need at wide receiver might be willing to take on Kupp’s entire $20 million 2025 salary. There would be $17.26 million in 2025 dead money with the Rams picking up $12.52 million of 2025 cap space under this scenario.

The Rams shouldn’t expect more than a Day 3 draft pick (fourth to seventh round) if a suitor can be found based on the trades of older wide receivers in recent years. The Los Angeles Chargers received a 2024 fourth-round pick from the Chicago Bears for Allen last March when he was close to turning 32. The Bears were fine paying Allen his entire $23.1 million 2024 salary. Allen was coming off a 2023 Pro Bowl season in which he had a career-high 108 receptions for 1,243 yards with seven touchdowns. 

The Buffalo Bills were comfortable with $31.096 million in 2024 dead money to deal Diggs, a 2024 fourth-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Houston Texans for a 2025 second-round pick last March. Diggs’ contract was reworked in connection with the trade. His 2025 through 2027 contract years worth $56,102,941 were replaced with 2025 through 2028 contract years automatically voiding on the 23rd day prior to the 2025 league year (Feb. 17). Diggs, who turned 31 at the end of November, also received a raise for 2024 where he made $22.52 million instead of $19.005 million.

The 2023 season was a tale of two for Diggs. He caught 49 passes for 620 yards and five touchdowns in Buffalo’s first six games. Diggs had five 100-yard games in the process. Over the final 11 games, Diggs didn’t have any 100-yard games and averaged 51.2 receiving yards per game. The disappearing act continued in the playoffs where Diggs had 10 receptions for 73 yards without any touchdowns in two games.

There were four trades of older wide receivers after the 2024 regular season started that have some relevancy. A 30-year-old Cooper was acquired by the Bills from the Cleveland Browns for a 2025 third-round pick during the middle of October last season. There was also a swap of late-round picks with the Bills getting a 2025 sixth-round pick and a 2026 seventh-round pick going to the Browns.

Around the same time as the Cooper trade, the Las Vegas Raiders accommodated a then-31-year-old Adams’ trade request by sending him to the New York Jets for a conditional 2025 third-round pick. The Titans dealt Hopkins, who is 32, to the Kansas City Chiefs in late October for a conditional 2025 fifth-round pick as the midseason trade deadline was approaching. A 30-year-old Mike Williams, who hadn’t returned to form after tearing the ACL in his left knee during the early part of the 2023 season, went to the Pittsburgh Steelers from the Jets for a 2025 fifth-round pick at the trade deadline.

The Dallas Cowboys obtained Cooks, who didn’t want to go through rebuilding with the Texans, for a 2023 fifth-round pick and a 2024 sixth-round pick in March 2023. Cooks had $35 million left on his contract, including a fully guaranteed $18 million 2023 base salary. The Texans converted $6 million of the $35 million into a signing bonus pre-trade so the Cowboys were responsible for the remaining $29 million.

Cooks, who played the 2023 season as a 30-year-old, renegotiated his contract after the trade. The remaining $29 million became a two-year, $20 million contract. Cooks had a fully guaranteed $12 million in 2023 and $8 million in 2024 under this deal. Including the $6 million the Texans paid prior to the trade, Cooks made $26 million over those two years. He caught 57 passes for 699 yards with three touchdowns in 13 games during the 2023 season. 

The Rams didn’t get a whole lot in return for Robinson and Woods. It was just a swap of 2023 seventh-round picks in the Robinson trade. Robinson having the worst two seasons of his career at that point in 2021 and 2022 diminished his trade value. Woods went for a 2023 sixth-round pick thanks to his knee injury. 

What Rams can do

An acquiring team may want to renegotiate Kupp’s contract. The new team paying Kupp the remaining $12.5 million for 2025 wouldn’t be unreasonable if the Rams ate his roster bonus based on the mechanics of some of these other trades. Kupp essentially has a de facto no-trade clause if a renegotiated contract is a requirement for an acquiring team. 

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Rams end up releasing Kupp given the supply of older wide receivers and Kupp’s injury history and production over the last three seasons. The Rams will initially have $22.26 million in 2025 dead money where $7.52 million of 2025 cap room is created by releasing Kupp before the last $2.5 million of his $7.5 million roster bonus becomes a payment obligation on March 16.

Kupp would surely get a contract from another team for more than $5 million. The offset with the roster bonus guarantee means the Rams would get the first $5 million from Kupp’s next contract. The end result would be $17.26 million in dead money where the Rams gain a total for $12.52 million of cap space relating to Kupp’s release. 

There would be some parallels to Hopkins if there isn’t a trade. Hopkins signed a two-year, $26 million deal worth a maximum of $33.5 million through incentives with the Titans at the start of training camp in 2023 after the Arizona Cardinals released him two months earlier toward the end of May. He was 31 at the time.

Hopkins had just gone through two challenging seasons where he failed to hit 1,000 yards receiving. He had 42 receptions, 572 yards receiving and eight touchdown catches in 2021. A hamstring injury and torn right MCL limited Hopkins to 10 games. He missed the first six games of the 2022 season serving a suspension for violating the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy. Hopkins caught 64 catches for 717 yards with three touchdowns in nine games after returning from his punishment.