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Sara Barshop
LOS ANGELES — Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp said Monday that he has “no doubt” he wants to play football next season and that while he would “love to be in Los Angeles,” he has no control about what will happen this offseason.
“I feel like I have a lot of good football left in me,” Kupp said in the Rams’ final locker room open session of the season. “Next year I will play football. I know that.”
Kupp acknowledged the rumors that circulated at the trade deadline, which he also addressed during the season.
“Who knows what’s going to happen,” Kupp said. “That’s out of my control. And we’ll see what it’s going to be… I don’t have any clarity on what it’s going to be like or anything like that. So yeah, obviously I would love to be in Los Angeles. But I don’t know what it’s going to be like.”
Kupp has two years remaining on the contract extension he signed in 2022, with $5 million guaranteed in 2025. If the Rams cut Kupp this offseason, they will save $15 million in cash and $7.52 million against the salary cap. If the Rams release him without a post-June 1 designation, they will absorb $22.2 million in dead money due to the remaining prorated portions of his signing bonus and $5 million of his roster bonus.
Kupp’s best season came in 2021, when he finished the regular season with the Triple Crown and was named MVP of Super Bowl LVI.
This season, Kupp had 67 receptions for 710 yards and six touchdowns in 12 regular-season games. He missed four games after injuring his ankle in Week 2 and missed the regular season finale after the Rams clinched the NFC West.
The receiver said the season was “frustrating” at times, on a personal level and with the ups and downs the offense had as a whole. While the Rams won 10 of their last 14 games after a 1-4 start, the offense struggled to find consistency.
“There’s all these things that you’re overcoming offensively, things that I feel like, man, we should be better than the product that we’re putting out in terms of production and points that are scored,” Kupp said. “And then, personally, I feel like, man, there are things, I’m watching film, feeling good about football and playing, but production-wise it’s not showing up. And a lot of things are out of my control. And it’s frustrating.”
Kupp had five receptions for 61 yards in the Rams’ season-ending loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Before that game, he had just 10 targets, 5 receptions, 82 receiving yards and no touchdowns in his previous five games, according to ESPN Research. He had five or more targets in each of the first nine games of the season, when he had 63 receptions for 657 yards and six touchdowns.
“Obviously I want to be able to feel like I’m impacting the games, and that’s done on a much more low-key level, I think, for a lot of these games,” Kupp said. “And that’s what it is, but I can look back on the season and be happy with what I shot and the things they asked me to do, feel like I was executing my job. And that’s all you can do.”
