The Los Angeles Rams have informed receiver Cooper Kupp that he’ll be released as the new league year begins Wednesday, league sources said.
The move will come after the team and Kupp’s representatives worked to find a trade but could not. Kupp is expected to draw interest from multiple teams as a free agent for the first time in his career.
Kupp, a multiyear team captain, was the NFL’s triple crown winner and Super Bowl MVP in 2021, and had previously spent his entire career in L.A. after he was drafted in the third round in 2017.
The situation has been slowly moving toward this result for several weeks. In February, head coach Sean McVay called the decision to move on from Kupp one of the “hardest” he has ever made, noting that it was football-related. The Rams appear to want to rebuild their receivers room around third-year star Puka Nacua, a former fifth-round draft pick who emerged in 2023-24 as the No. 1 target for quarterback Matthew Stafford (in part due to injuries that forced Kupp to miss time). Kupp has also been a mentor to Nacua.
“This guy has changed my life for the better,” McVay said of Kupp last week, “we have had eight years together. … (the decision) is not made as a separate entity. These are for the team. You’re ultimately trying to put the puzzle together with a lot of thought and consideration. We just felt like that was the best direction for our football team.
“It doesn’t take away the love, respect and gratitude that you have for what he has done. But it just came down to what we think is best in terms of putting together the whole puzzle. There’s obviously a lot of layers to that. You always acknowledge that fact that, ‘Hey, been wrong before. Could be wrong again.’ But we always try to have our core values and the big picture shape our perspective and (ultimately) our decision-making.”
Sean McVay, Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford had been together since 2021 when L.A. traded for Stafford. (Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)
The Rams reached an agreement with Stafford in late February to adjust his existing contract, giving Stafford a pay raise from the initial $27 million owed while placing year-to-year parameters around a deal that does currently run through 2026. Stafford is one of only a few players still on the roster from their Super Bowl-winning season.
Over the last few days, the Rams also extended receiver Tutu Atwell on a one-year, $10 million deal according to a league source, and signed receiver Davante Adams on a two-year, $46 million deal with $26 million guaranteed, league sources said.
Kupp, 31, finished the 2025 regular season with 67 catches for 710 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. His targets dwindled during the back stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs. He had four catches on nine targets over the last three regular-season games, was targeted once for one catch against Minnesota in the wild-card round and caught five passes on seven targets against the Eagles in the divisional-round loss. In his 14 games (including the postseason) this season, Kupp had 10 or more targets just four times and eight or more targets six times.
Injuries have been partially to blame. Kupp played in just nine regular-season games in 2022, and 12 games apiece in 2023 and 2024.
That dip in production did not meet his current salary in the Rams’ eyes. In 2022, Kupp signed a three-year, $80 million contract extension with the Rams. His salary-cap numbers in 2025 and 2026 are $29.7 million and $27.3 million, respectively, with $5 million in guarantees in 2025 and none in 2026 according to Over the Cap. He also is owed roster bonuses of $12.5 million combined over the next two seasons per OTC. The $7.5 million roster bonus owed to Kupp in 2025 would have triggered on March 19.
The Rams never approached Kupp about making a change to his salary.
Kupp said after the divisional-round loss that he planned to play football in 2025, though allowed that the location was uncertain. The Rams had trade conversations about Kupp with other teams ahead of this year’s deadline.
“Do I want to play next year? Oh yeah,” he said, laughing. “There’s no doubt in my mind I want to play football. I feel like I’ve got a lot of good football left in me. I definitely will be playing — I will be playing football next year. That much I know.”
In separate news conferences immediately after the season ended, neither McVay (who had spent his entire coaching tenure with Kupp) nor general manager Les Snead would commit to Kupp’s future with the Rams.
Kupp later posted on social media that the Rams intended to trade him, expressing his dismay about the situation while also thanking the city of Los Angeles and Rams fans.
Kupp also said that he is expecting to have a full and healthy offseason. He has dealt with injuries in each of the last three years, including a high ankle sprain that sidelined him for four games this year. He played in nine games in 2022, and 12 games in 2023.
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(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)
