Matthew Stafford got his bag; what’s the latest on the Cooper Kupp trade rumors?

A whorl of rumors in Indianapolis, and none of them about Cooper Kupp. Nice work, Rams. The smoke and mirrors of the potential Matthew Stafford trade (which was never going to happen), his official contract restructuring yesterday, and the cherry-on-top extension of LT Alaric Jackson have done plenty to allay the concerns of Rams fans who a) believe their roster could make another playoff run in 2025 and b) were subsequently flummoxed as to why in the good golly their team was letting its Super-Bowl-winning quarterback shop himself around. We were all too caught up in the petty and manufactured misdirection over to the left to even pay much memory to the real mess over to the right: Cooper Kupp’s devastating departure from the Los Angeles Rams.

And, as if by design—all that Stafford ballyhoo for nothing at all. However, the bag of money tossed Matthew’s way has reignited calls for the Rams to, just, like, walk it all back, you guys. We’ll forgive you. Just resign Cooper Kupp—trade rumors be damned! Make amends, bring him back for one last ride, and enshrine him in the Ring of Fame as soon as he’s eligible.

Unlikely. And so the questions remain: where will Cooper Kupp be traded? Which teams are his best landing spots?

I am a Rams fan. I would love a Cooper Kupp reunion more than anything, and wrote plenty of analysis on his 2024-25 season that has me believing he’s still got as much in the tank as he said he does in that B52-bomber of a social media post almost a month ago to the day. More on that later.

But I’m also a realist, and this thing did not end well between a franchise-figurehead wide receiver and the team for which he gave everything. This had to hurt both sides, to some degree. We’ll get into that, too.

The Rams’ bio on their X account says it all, even if it says very little:

Catch footballs, not feelings. It’s all business now, folks. Stafford’s back, but the chance of a Cooper Kupp reunion feels obliterated with no uncertain degree of absolution. And, somehow, it seems less likely that it’d be good for either side. Movin’ on time, as it were.

Let’s detail the fall from grace on both sides, and get into some potential landing spots for Cooper Kupp.

What went wrong with Cooper Kupp and the Rams

The contract

Blame the Super Bowl win in 2021, I guess? We can talk all we want about how Kupp was a lifelong Ram, drafted by the team out of Eastern Washington. His quiet ascendance through the Goff years. What his presence as an anchor meant to Sean McVay as McVay instituted, at the time, an offense more complex than that of most other NFL teams. How it’s just fine to believe the organization owes him just as much loyalty as Matthew Stafford in this late-era Los Angeles core.

But where this whole thing started and ended was with Cooper Kupp winning triple crown, unofficial though it may be—earning it with a consistent excellency we hadn’t seen since the likes of Jerry Rice—in the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI season: 145 receptions, 1,947 yards, 16 touchdowns. He was the most important player on their offense in the playoffs, and caught the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. He won Super Bowl MVP, too.

As such, in 2022, the Rams rewarded Kupp with a three-year, $80.1 million extension that guaranteed him $75 million up front, the most ever guaranteed to a wide receiver. He was 29 then. There were initial concerns this was too much of a heart deal, and that the back end of his contract would set both sides up for failure. It did.

Here’s the exact structure:

It’s those two bolded numbers—the $29.7M and 27.3M cap hits in 2025 and 2026—that have the Rams looking to use Cooper Kupp’s contract to free them from potentially-souring salary cap implications now. Why, even despite a season in which Kupp himself—famously his own worst critic—said he felt what he put on tape was great?

Health, age, missed time. Those can truly be the only reasons, barring a locker room toxicity we’ve neither any information about, nor any historical reason to believe Kupp that would self-destruct as such. It wasn’t lack of production, either.

Here are a list of Kupp’s injuries after pen hit paper:

2022 Season:

• October 30, 2022: Minor ankle sprain during a game continued to play, didn’t miss any games until…
• November 13, 2022: High ankle sprain, a Grade 3 injury, which required surgery. Out for season.

2023 Season:

• August 1, 2023: Hamstring strain in training camp. He tried to fight through it later in August, but aggravated the injury. He didn’t play until Week 5.
• November 19, 2023: Ankle sprain, but missed no games.

2024 Season:

• September 15, 2024: High ankle sprain, a Grade 3 injury, which led to him missing five games. No surgery.

The Rams simply view this medical history as too much risk for two more years of $25-30 million. They’re not altogether wrong. When you lay it out like this, you understand the organization might be thinking they’re paying for a receiver who historically, now, can only shoulder just around two-thirds of an NFL season. And those ankle sprains have to be adding up, right?

Last note: Kupp’s base salary for 2025, including roster bonuses (not listed above), is actually $20 million. The Rams want nothing to do with that, and so they’re seeking trading partners for Kupp as soon as possible.

How it ended

Ignominiously. We always knew the fracturing of the Super Bowl LVI era of the Los Angeles Rams was more than likely going to begin within a five-year window of their Lombardi trophy. It’s surprising enough they’ve managed to replace Aaron Donald with Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, and Jared Verse. Age was going to catch up to the captains of that epoch of the team, and business decisions were bound to feel tough. LVI was, after all, only four calendar years ago. Kupp’s most significant contribution to this team is, as of today, just a titch longer than a single presidential term in the rearview.

So, let’s be clear: I’ve been writing about the Rams since the Stafford trade in 2020, and that social media blast was far and away the most disarming and out-of-left-field route Kupp might have taken. Even insiders were baffled, stung. What had likely only been sequestered to whispers—plainly: Kupp’s fury—was now bandied about all over social media. The blow had landed. One would be within reason to go ahead and say this suggests Kupp was eager to control his own narrative in such a way that might also suggest he was tired of his story being inexorably linked with organizational decisions.

I was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with me and my family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don’t agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA.

Still, if there’s… pic.twitter.com/XWmbGVscGy

— Cooper Kupp (@CooperKupp) February 4, 2025

(Aside: when I went to his X handle to grab the embed for that tweet, I was, somehow, surprised Kupp had pinned it to his profile. But it speaks to the above.)

We got uncharacteristically self-motivated phrases like “I don’t agree with the decision,” and “2024 began with one of the best training camps of my career,” and “But coming for it all,” from a guy who is notoriously team-focused. The opening “But” there in that last line—forgive the linguistic tangent—again, would imply there’s something against which Kupp is pitting himself, something or someone he’s cautioning: his love for L.A., for the game, etc., now has a longsword edge to it. “But“—a pointed contraction about a rotting contract that does all the semantic work a full exposé would do. What he does next will be in spite of the Rams, not because of them.

Indeed—there’s no question: as of Februrary 3rd, 2025, the relationship between Cooper Kupp and the Los Angeles Rams suffered a can’t-come-back-from-this cleave. One which drove Kupp—a player so reserved that he, by practice, does not even celebrate touchdowns—to more-or-less pop on Twitter and let everyone know his team left him holding the bag after a confusing and frustrating year. It felt, to this longtime Rams fan and writer, like the closest Cooper Kupp would ever come to a social media moment like Tyreek Hill’s viral “It’s time to go coach” tweet that went viral midway through the 2024 season.

Kupp’s frustration

Hard not to empathize with it. He vanished from the offense entirely, other than some outstanding blocks on key plays—particularly on Puka Nacua’s screen touchdown in that Week 14 barnburner against the Bills. The Rams don’t win that game without Kupp’s block, here.

Double threat!

Puka Nacua records both a rushing and receiving TD against the Bills, the latter for a fourth quarter lead.

🎥 @NFL pic.twitter.com/JW4n66tJDU

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 9, 2024

And yet, he made two incredibly tough 29-yard catches in pivotal moments down the stretch—one in must-win game against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17 (it was his only catch), and another in the Wild Card win against the Vikings. On that catch against the Vikings, he hit his fastest route-running speed of the season (19.35 mph). The hands were there all year, especially on that catch. The speed wasn’t all the way gone, even despite the ankle injury. But, for some reason, the volume had disappeared.

Joe Buck says it right here: that 29-yard catch was his first target of the night in the Wild Card game:

Cooper has always been so good at adjusting to the deep ball on the fly! Kupp made the most of this play helping keep momentum with the Rams early in the 2nd half.

A Rams treasure #10 pic.twitter.com/p8ZEszV2MI

— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) January 15, 2025

It was clear enough to those who follow the Rams beat. Kupp’s postgame interview (which I can’t find anywhere on the Web, currently) after the Wild Card win against Minnesota (but in Arizona) wasn’t marble-mouthed with his characteristic heady football IQ jargon about big plays on the offense. It wasn’t about team resolve. It was stoic, sure—but Kupp always is.

When he talked about his family’s six-figure donation to the LAFD foundation in light of the horrific wildfires, and spoke about what the team was playing for, there was an emptiness, a more-than-usual reticence. Maybe I was looking for it, but he seemed defeated. It felt, for sure, like this was a weary man who, upon having been asked about the larger purpose(s) for which his team might be playing, was puzzled about what he himself was playing for. It’s fair to think he might have felt like his team had done little else but spend their run to the playoffs systematically squeezing him out. Even that 29-yard catch was on a hurry-up call, with Minnesota’s defense caught between substitutions.

And then, of course, the loss to the Eagles. The locker room interviews that were noncommittal about, well, just about everything except wanting to keep playing football from Stafford and Kupp. Then the tweet. Days after that came the Kelly Stafford response, and the Rams’ rumored response to the response, etc., and all the Matthew Stafford dominos after that, which I detailed here prior to Stafford’s contract restructure yesterday.

There are conflicting reports about how much money of Kupp’s contract the Rams are willing to eat to get a trade done before the new league year on March 12th. Some say up to $20 million; others cite a figure up to $40 million. We have no idea the degree to which a lot of this information that’s been leaked to the press was somehow leverage in the Matthew Stafford negotiations. But we should be smart enough to entertain the idea that the Rams were playing a little dirty, too, while Stafford and Raiders co-owner Tom Brady dined over elk in Montana. I’m not obtuse enough to believe that was happenstance.

So, yes—it’s devolved into a bit of a mudfight. But maybe that’s okay. The Rams weren’t going to be bullied. Stafford wasn’t going to be undervalued. Stafford and the Rams both got to publicly advocate for themselves, and now they can get back to the business of catching footballs, not feelings. The Rams are making it clear: they understand they have a contending roster, and are willing to forego sentimentality in order to maximize the championship window that’s suddenly appeared with the advent of this young defense, as well as offensive homegrown stars Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams.

And, let’s remind ourselves, Matthew Stafford is ever a professional. When it comes to his messaging as soon as he gets back in the building and is wearing that backwards corduroy-fitted 2024 sideline Rams hat, expect zero transparency into anything that’s going on.

Always, though, in the recesses of the obdurate, shit-slinging mentality behind both sides of the Stafford negotiations was the melancholy (those darn feelings!) the Rams want folks to avoid catching—a reminder of the purgatory in which Cooper Kupp remains.

Not likely, however, he remains that way for long.

Most likely landing spots

Here are the four teams (with two honorable mentions) I think are the best fits for Kupp.

New England Patriots

Perennially wide-receiver-needy team under a new coaching staff and with an ascending quarterback in Drake Maye. Kupp fits the mold of the receivers Vrabel & co. were used to winning with in their playing days. Well within reason to believe that, with all New England’s cap space, they’d see a veteran route-runner whose 2024 tape was still crisp as worthy of a top-dollar investment. The organization believes Drake Maye has the leadership chops to be a franchise linchpin.

Important to remember, however, that Cooper Kupp said he would be working with the team to go to a championship-caliber organization. New England isn’t close to that yet. Kupp’s never played a full season outdoors, and the east coast would be a climate shock for his preparation. Maye is tantalizing, and so is Vrabel, but I think this would be the toughest sell among teams with the cash to throw Kupp’s way.

Cincinnati Bengals

The likelihood Kupp wears tiger stripes in 2025 is entirely reliant on the Tee Higgins negotiations, which have yet to conclude between Higgins’ team and Cincinnati. But, should the Bengals part ways with Higgins and send him on somewhere to be the alpha wide receiver he believes he is, Cooper Kupp would be a fantastic WR2/3 in that offense behind Ja’Marr Chase and Andrei Iosivas. I’m high on Iosivas as being able to do a lot of what Kupp can (and, just by virtue of youth, perhaps more) if given the volume, so I could see the Bengals feeling as if shelling out Kupp money for a Tyler Boyd role wouldn’t be all the way worth it.

You also wonder if there’d be any added context in front office talks between these two teams, seeing as Kupp almost single-handedly won the Super Bowl against the Bengals in the fourth quarter of that game. But that’s ancient history, and otherwise immaterial, right?

Los Angeles Chargers

What bugs me a little bit is that Kupp and his family donated a fair sum to the LAFD foundation before the team informed him about the trade that’d send him outside the city limits. Again, it’s all speculation, but Cooper Kupp’s been in Los Angeles his entire career. His commitment to L.A. is documented. He’s also a family man, like Stafford. At this point in his career, would a move to an ascending team whose home field is in the same building as your ex’s be whatsoever appealing?

The Chargers’ roster is the best I’ve listed yet. The defense is real, and will only get better next season. They have the second-best quarterback of these options, with Joe Burrow a clear winner over Justin Herbert. But Herbert has a high ceiling, one which folks believe has yet to be shattered—it seemed pretty architecturally stubborn, that ceiling, in his four-pick playoff loss to the Texans’ this year, didn’t it?—and Kupp would be another short-yardage option that might take some pressure off Ladd McConkey. McConkey has a history of lower-body injuries, just like Kupp, and they date back to his days as a Georgia Bulldog. The Chargers can’t be under the impression that McConkey can shoulder the workload he did this past season for an entire career.

Kupp’s an answer, there. A better one than Stone Smartt and Will Dissly. Probably better than Joshua Palmer—we’ve seen enough at this point, right?—unless Herbert’s the one holding him back.

To boot, it’d be a way for things to still begin and end in Los Angeles. I’d have a tough time believing the Rams would be hesitant to let Kupp swap conferences, even if it meant staying in the same building. The Chargers have the cap space to make it happen. It’d be fun, and a geographic breeze.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Yeah, yeah, yeah—everyone’s going to the Steelers, aren’t they? The defense, the packaged-with-a-bow Super-Bowl-echelon coaching staff, the special teams execution. Mike Tomlin just won’t stop winning, etc.

But Cooper Kupp’s spent the last ten years of his career playing with quarterbacks far above the talent level of today’s Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. We’re not even sure how much the Steelers believe in either of those assets, and it feels like this is a locker room with a bit of volatility to it, already with its share of offseason baggage to rummage through.

Maybe it’s because I don’t want Kupp to land in Pittsburgh, but I don’t see him wanting to downgrade to replacement-level aging quarterbacks when it comes to working with the Rams to find the right spot. We’re altogether unsure how much sway he has in these negotiations, but if those quarterbacks couldn’t convert first downs with Pat Freiermuth, is the addition of Cooper Kupp really going to make the offense that much more propulsive?

Kupp would immediately slot in as the WR2 behind George Pickens, who’d be unlike any wide receiver partner Kupp has yet had in his career. Both in terms of talent and disposition.

Honorable mentions

Houston Texans: They have a bigger offensive line problem than they do a wide receiver problem, but Stefon Diggs is getting older and will be fresh off a repaired torn ACL. Tank Dell has had wildly-unfortunate injury luck his entire career. When C.J. Stroud’s options narrow, their offense gets predictable. Cooper Kupp would, again, be the clear WR2/3 in this room. You could see the Texans believing he’d be a sound investment, given their offensive holes.

Philadelphia Eagles: I know, I know—this is so unlikely. But can we rule out Howie Roseman going out and getting another difference-maker like Kupp around draft time? Seems to me Howie is always at least a fly on the wall in any contract talks when it comes to championship-caliber roster assets.