LOS ANGELES — Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp said Monday there is “no doubt” in his mind that he wants to play football next season and that while he “would love to be in L.A.,” he has no control over what will happen this offseason.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of good football left in me,” Kupp said in the Rams’ final open locker room session of the season. “I’ll be playing football next year. That much I know.”
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 will see what it’s going to be. … I don’t have any clarity on what that’s going to look like or anything like that. So yeah, obviously would love to be in L.A., but I don’t know what that’s going to look like.”
Kupp has two years left 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 receiving triple crown and was named Super Bowl LVI MVP.
This season, Kupp had 67 catches for 710 yards and six touchdowns in 12 regular-season games. He missed four games after injuring his ankle in Week 2 and sat out the regular-season finale after the Rams had 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 you’re weathering through offensively, things that I feel like, man, we should be better than the product we’re putting out there in terms of the production and the points that are being scored,” Kupp said. “And then just for me personally feeling like, man, there’s things, I’m watching film, feeling good about football and playing, but productionwise it’s not showing up. And a lot of stuff’s outside of my control. And it is frustrating.”
Kupp had five catches for 61 yards in the Rams’ season-ending loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Prior to 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 first nine games of season, when he had 63 catches for 657 yards and six touchdowns.
“Obviously I want to be able to feel like I’m impacting games, and that’s done on a much more discreet level, I feel like, for a lot of these games,” Kupp said. “And that is what it is, but I can look back on the season and be happy with what I put on tape and things that I was being asked to do, feel like I was executing my job. And that’s all you can do.”
