The L.A. Rams put Cooper Kupp on the trade block over a month ago, but now it appears that the team will release the receiver on Wednesday barring a last minute surprise. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, that’s what the Rams will do in two days, ending a remarkable eight year career in L.A. that included a Super Bowl championship, Super Bowl MVP, and Offensive Player of the Year award.
The Rams signed Davante Adams on Sunday, effectively ending all speculation on how the team would get Matthew Stafford more weapons once they parted with Kupp.
Immediately after Kupp announced that he was on the trade block in early February, I wrote that a release would be far more likely;
If a team acquires Kupp’s $20 million, that alone makes him the 15th-highest paid receiver in the NFL in 2025. However, several players ahead of him will be released, traded, or take pay cuts. At the end of the day, Kupp’s $20 million would end up as a top-10 cap hit in the NFL, which is nowhere close to where he is as a player anymore.
Receivers near or over 30 are being phased out of the NFL unless they take tremendous pay cuts, with Adams being one of the extremely rare exceptions. Kupp is 32 and was set to make $20 million, which is at least twice what he’s worth on the open market. Teams might be interested in Kupp for a bargain, but giving up anything to acquire him, even a day three pick swap, makes no sense just to pay $12.5 million in base salary.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t sensible for the Rams to pay more of his salary than they have to — they owe him a $7.5 million roster bonus, $5 million of which is guaranteed — just to get a sixth round pick.
The Rams will save about $7 million in cap space with this move.