Like Bill Belichick, Les Snead is known as a general manager who’s never been afraid to move on from a player earlier than expected. He did it with Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and even Jalen Ramsey to an extent, but one Hall of Famer believes the Los Angeles Rams are parting with Cooper Kupp “a year late.”
That’s what former Rams and Steelers running back Jerome Bettis said over the weekend when discussing Kupp’s future.
“I think they’re really a year late,” Bettis told DJ Siddiqi of RG. “They’re a year late on that. They wanted to make that decision, they wanted to make that move last year. But they were lukewarm with it. Now, they’re public with it. They’re a year late.”
It’s not as if Bettis doesn’t understand why the Rams are moving on from Kupp. He gets it, and he attributes the decision to the emergence of Puka Nacua.
Kupp and Nacua are a similar type of receiver in that they do everything well at the position, so Bettis almost views it as redundant to keep both of them – especially knowing Nacua is going to need a huge raise in a year or two.
“If you’ve got your guy, then you don’t need the other guy,” Bettis said. “I think Cooper Kupp was the guy, and then Puka Nacua came and became the new guy. Now you’ve got two guys and you don’t need them both. It’s smart to get off of the other guy and it’s understandable. I don’t think it’s such a crazy thing.”
The Rams toyed with the idea of trading Kupp before the deadline last October but ultimately held onto him. That situation was more about teams calling the Rams rather than them shopping the receiver.
Now, Kupp has made it publicly known that the Rams plan to trade him, so they’ve lost some leverage in these negotiations. They should still be able to find a trade partner for the veteran receiver, but the return may not be as high as it would’ve been back in October.