Bear Digest

Why Cooper Kupp suddenly rates as possible Chicago Bears option

As free agency approaches and teams assess their cap situations, they could find Cooper Kupp will be more reasonable, according to one insider.
Gene Chamberlain|
Cooper Kupp leaves the field after the Rams played the Cardinals last season.
Cooper Kupp leaves the field after the Rams played the Cardinals last season. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

When the Rams' decision to trade Cooper Kupp became public, it created a great deal of excitement around the league and even in Chicago.

It all seemed extremely unlikely Kupp could end up in Chicago, though, even with an obvious need at slot receiver.

After all, the Bears just wasted a fourth-round draft pick on a slot receiver from Los Angeles and all they had to show for a season with Keenan Allen was a team-high seven touchdown catches in a meaningless five-win season and $23 million of their 2024 salary cap gone. It didn't seem to work for the Bears.

So why would Ryan Poles ever be rushing out and throwing a draft pick at the Rams for another veteran slot receiver with a cap hit of $27.3 million for 2025 and $27.3 million for 2026? This is a player who missed five games each of the last two years due to injuries and eight games in 2022.

If the assessment of ESPN veteran writer Bill Barnwell is accurate in an article Monday, the Bears and numerous other teams will have a decent chance at signing Kupp and it won't cost a draft pick or two-thirds of their available cap space.

Now, whether the Bears would want to bring in a receiver who has really only had one special season is worth a debate. Kupp's 145-catch, 1,947-yard 2021 season is the stuff of legend, but he only had one other year with more than 974 yards and averaged 837 yards the rest of his career.

However, what Barnwell suggests is what was mentioned as the likely possibility by Chicago Bears On SI when the possibility of trade became news and that is Kupp will be cut by the Rams and not traded. Barnwell doesn't see a team giving the Rams a pick for him in his assessment of players likely to be traded or be cap cut victims.

"My guess is that as a free agent, he would end up landing a deal in the $8 million range, where his every-snap value as a blocker and receiver would be weakened by the concerns about his ability to stay healthy," Barnwell wrote.

The injury history is a key here.

"Organizations will have to treat a full season out of Kupp as a pleasant surprise and project him as a 13-game player when they value him on the market," Barnwell wrote.

The projection is he might wind up in L.A. with the Chargers, instead, but Jim Harbaugh would seem more likely to focus such energies on youth and not a 31-year-old receiver.

"He has excelled in the Rams' motion-heavy offense as a player who can break down defenders on crossing and choice routes, with that little burst of pre-snap speed giving him an advantage," Barnwell wrote. "Nobody ran more routes in motion at the snap than Kupp's 106 in 2024."

That's with five games missed due to injuries. The Rams made their playoff run once he was back.

Who else runs slot receivers with a good deal of motion and tries to use motion to break down defenses? Yes, of course Ben Johnson will do it.

The Lions took slot receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who had a 40 time of 4.51 seconds, and helped him get open constantly for catches when he's so wide open he can burn teams repeatedly with yards after the catch.

Kupp could fit well with a team that could use someone in the slot capable of blocking and catching passes, and especially one who gets open for a young QB.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.