The defending Super Bowl champs were dealt a serious blow on Sunday when Rashee Rice suffered what’s feared to be a torn ACL, most likely leaving the Kansas City Chiefs without their top receiver for the rest of the season. naturally, the conversation on Monday has been about which wideouts the Chiefs might consider trading for or signing to fill the void.
NFL Network’s Peter Schrager was on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd and pitched a couple of interesting names for Kansas City to target, including Rams star Cooper Kupp.
Schrager isn’t suggesting the Chiefs are going to acquire Kupp or that the Rams would even consider trading him, but with the Rams sitting at 1-3 and Kupp playing on a big contract, he was an obvious pick for Schrager.
“I said this and I got a lot of pushback – it doesn’t come from the Rams guys – but I would call on Cooper Kupp,” Schrager said. “I would see. I would call every team. I would call 31 teams and I would say, ‘All right, your team is not going to the Super Bowl this year. You’re paying this amount of money.’”
"Brett Veach has never been scared to pick up the phone… I would call on Cooper Kupp. I would see."@PSchrags on Kansas City's WR corps pic.twitter.com/NHKZ9XXLyW
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) September 30, 2024
He reiterated that he’s not reporting anything or indicating the Rams would make such a deal, once again pointing to the fact that Los Angeles is quickly falling out of the playoff race and the injured Kupp won’t help them until Week 7 at the earliest.
“Look, I love Kupp, I know Stafford loves Kupp and I know McVay loves Kupp so they’re probably not going to trade Kupp, but it doesn’t hurt to call and say, ‘OK, you’re 1-3 and Puka’s out for the next four weeks, so what would it take to get this future Hall of Famer?’” he said. “Because I would assume every team picks up the phone and then you can just say, ‘No, we’re good.’”
Kupp has two years left on his contract but the Rams could conceivably get out of it after this season. If they cut him, they would take on $22.3 million in dead money, a net savings of about $7.5 million. For that reason, it’s not unreasonable to think this could be his last season in a Rams uniform.
Les Snead is never afraid to make a splash or surprising move – just look at the Brandin Cooks trade, Todd Gurley release or Jalen Ramsey deal – so there’s a less than 100% chance Kupp will be back in 2025.
It’s highly unlikely to happen, but Schrager may not be completely crazy for this idea.
