Cooper Kupp is one of those players who’s near-impossible to picture wearing a different uniform. He’s been a staple of the Los Angeles Rams’ offense for the last eight years, climbing the franchise’s all-time leaderboard with 7,776 receiving yards – more than all but three players in team history.
As hard as it is to imagine, Kupp may have played his last game with the Rams. Though nothing has been decided yet, there’s a real possibility that the team will move on from the veteran receiver this offseason.
The primary reason? His production is no longer matching his cost.
Kupp caught just 67 passes for 710 yards in 12 games last season, one of his worst campaigns as a pro. With a cap hit of $29.78 million in 2025, it’s hard to imagine the Rams keeping him at that number after a third straight season with fewer than 900 yards and less than 13 games played.
It won’t be easy to part ways with Kupp, emotionally or financially, but sometimes the difficult decisions are the most necessary ones to make. Just look at the Rams trading Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford when they did.
Assuming the Rams don’t want to keep Kupp at his current salary, they have three options: ask him to take a pay cut, trade him or release him.
Pay cut
Pay cuts aren’t unheard of in the NFL, but they aren’t exactly common, either. And we’re not talking about a restructure where the Rams would move money into future years to lower his 2025 cap hit.
Last offseason, Joe Noteboom took a pay cut to remain with the Rams, lowering his cap number from $20 million to $11.6 million, saving Los Angeles $8.4 million in cap space. Some of Noteboom’s salary was converted into incentives, allowing him to earn up to $14 million, but after an injury-filled season, he failed to earn any of those bonuses.
With Kupp, the Rams could rework his deal to make it more incentive-heavy. They could put bonuses in his contract for reaching 1,000 yards or catching, say, 90 passes, allowing Kupp to still earn a fair amount of money if he stays healthy and remains productive.
For example, Noteboom had incentives for playing time, which were also paired with the Rams making the playoffs and improving offensively as a team. That could be the type of approach the team takes with Kupp, rewarding him for staying healthy.
In that scenario, it’s possible they could lower his cap hit from $29.78 million to somewhere closer to $20 million – though that still might not be enough of a reduction for them to keep him. He also may not be willing to take a pay cut, which will make this option a non-starter.
Trade
The second option is trading Kupp. The Rams were reportedly open to trading Kupp before the deadline last year but nothing amounted to those talks, keeping the receiver in Los Angeles for the remainder of the season.
According to The Athletic, they were seeking a second-round pick in exchange for Kupp and they were willing to eat some of his 2024 salary to get a deal done. Sean McVay threw water on those reports and questioned their validity, but it seems there was at least some truth to the rumors.
If the Rams couldn’t get a second-rounder for Kupp in October, there’s no way they’re going to get that now. He finished the year with five straight games of less than 70 yards receiving and is now entering his age-32 season.
The biggest hurdle in any trade will be his contract. There may not be a team willing to take on his current deal, which will include a $12.5 million salary this year and $14.85 million in 2026.
The Rams, meanwhile, would save $12.52 million by trading cut this offseason, reducing his cap number from $29.78 million to $17.26 million. It’s possible they’ll work out a deal with someone, but they shouldn’t expect to get more than a Day 3 pick in return.
Release
Cutting Kupp might be the simplest and likeliest option for the Rams. That doesn’t mean it’d be easy to do, but it’s often what decisions like this come down to.
Unfortunately, it’s also the worst option financially for the Rams because they would only save $7.52 million by cutting Kupp before June 1. Even as a post-June 1 cut, they’d save $15 million, but only because his total dead cap charge of $22.26 million would be split between the next two years instead of all coming in 2025.
By cutting Kupp, the Rams would allow him to pick his next team. As we’ve seen in the past, they’re often willing to work with a team in situations like this; they did so by trading Jalen Ramsey to the Dolphins, and again with Ernest Jones when they traded him to the Titans last offseason.
If Kupp makes it clear that he wants to be cut instead of traded, the Rams might abide by his wishes and grant him his release out of respect for the veteran receiver. As a franchise cornerstone, cutting Kupp won’t be easy, but he won’t be the first star player the Rams have moved on from.
