The fairytale ending for a Super Bowl MVP is to finish his career wearing just the one jersey. The jersey of the team that drafted him, that developed him, where he made his name, where he won his ring.
But, as Monday reminded us, the hard realities of the football business get in the way of storybooks.
Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp announced that the Rams, the team that drafted him in 2017, had decided to trade him to a new home. They will, Kupp said, work with the receiver and his family to find a desirable destination, but his days in Los Angeles are done after eight seasons.
“I don’t agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA,” Kupp wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Still, if there’s one thing that I have learned over the years: there are so many things that are out of your control, but it is how you respond to these things that you will look back on and remember.”
Kupp had long been a fan favorite since he was selected by the team in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft, the first after head coach Sean McVay was hired to lead the team. But he exploded into the national consciousness in 2021 after the Matthew Stafford trade. He led the NFL in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16) in 17 games, the first standalone Triple Crown winner since 1992.
And Kupp was an integral part of the Rams’ Super Bowl run that winter, catching the winning touchdown pass with 1:25 to play against the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium to secure the franchise’s first title in Los Angeles.
But following the Rams’ divisional round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last month, McVay and Rams general manager Les Snead did not commit to bringing Kupp back. McVay said the Rams needed to meet as a leadership unit and decide his place in the franchise’s plans. But the coach already spoke ominously about difficult conversations that he might have to have with Kupp.
“One of the things that I’ve learned from him as much as anybody is there’s no good way to go about hard conversations other than just straight to the point,” McVay said two weeks ago. “And if you really love somebody enough, then you’re able to be honest and direct with them. And he’s always done that to me. That’s what I’ve done with him and we’ll be able to figure out what is the best way to navigate that moving forward.”
Snead, who called Kupp a “weight-bearing wall” of the franchise following the 2022 season as the Rams reset the books, did not reinforce that notion, instead talking about Kupp’s contributions to the Super Bowl title.
“I don’t even know if I can put into words what they’ve meant to this organization,” Snead said of Kupp and Stafford. “I probably have a picture behind me somewhere where it’s Cooper Kupp catching a ball at SoFi on the last weekend of the NFL season, a ball thrown by Matthew Stafford that changed the course of this franchise and there’s a banner hanging in that stadium that only one team gets a year.”
For his part during locker room cleanout, Kupp said he wasn’t sure what the future held after finding himself in the middle of rumors at the trade deadline.
He did say, however, he wanted to be a Ram next year. But two realities got in the way of the Rams and Kupp continuing on together.
The first was Kupp’s health. The receiver has missed 16 games due to injury in the three years since Super Bowl LVI. He was on pace to replicate his ridiculous 2021 output despite an injury to Stafford in 2022 before a high-ankle sprain ended his season. Hamstring and ankle issues continued to pop in 2023 and 2024, and this last year was his least productive since 2018 with just 710 yards receiving. In a four-game stretch from Week 15 to the wild-card victory over the Minnesota Vikings, he caught just five passes.
Kupp seemed to acknowledge this shift in his reputation in his announcement on Monday.
“2024 began with one of the best training camps of my career,” he wrote. “Preparations start now for 2025. Highly motivated, as healthy as ever, and looking forward to playing elite football for years to come.”
The second reality that made the first untenable for the Rams was Kupp’s contract, a three-year, $80 million extension he signed after Super Bowl LVI.
He has two years left on the deal. No money is guaranteed in 2026, but he is due a $7.5 million roster bonus this year, $5 million of which is guaranteed. Beyond the owed money, Kupp will count $29.78 million against the Rams’ salary cap in 2025.
A trade would reduce that dead cap number by $12.52 million; the cap savings increase to $20 million if the trade is designated post-June 1.
So the Rams will try to find Kupp a new home that fits his goal of continued championship contention, while moving on from a team captain who helped mentor his successor, Puka Nacua, the past two years.
“So I thought it was just the NBA trade season,” Nacua tweeted on Monday after Kupp’s announcement, while safety Quentin Lake added, “My heart can’t take this… one of the most amazing teammates I have ever been around.”
The fairytale is over. And Kupp and the Rams will move forward, just in different directions.
“I have taken so much pride in playing alongside my teammates for the LA community,” Kupp wrote, “so thank you for embracing my family and making this such a special place for us.”