Rams’ Cooper Kupp: ‘I’ll be playing football next year, that much I know’

LOS ANGELES — Star wide receiver Cooper Kupp is certain he wants to play football in 2025, but also indicated Monday during the Los Angeles Rams’ locker cleanout that the “where” isn’t necessarily up to him.

“Who knows what’s going to happen?” he said. “A lot of things are out of my control. We’ll see (what) it turns out to be. There were obviously things going on early in the season and we’ll see. I have no clarity on what it’s going to look like. I would obviously love being in LA, but I don’t know what it’s going to look like.”

Kupp referred to the Rams’ conversations about him with other teams ahead of this season’s trade deadline. The 31-year-old receiver and former triple crown winner has been with the franchise his entire career after they drafted him in the third round in 2017.

“Do I want to play next year? Oh yeah,” he added, laughing. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I want to play football. I feel like I have a lot of good football left in me. I definitely want to play – I’m going to play football next year. That much I know.”

Kupp finished the regular season with 67 catches for 710 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. His goals dropped during the back stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs. He had four catches on nine targets over the final 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 on Sunday. In his 14 games (including the postseason), Kupp had 10 or more goals just four times and eight or more goals six times.

“For me personally, I feel like ‘man, there’s stuff I watch (on) film and feel good about the football I’m playing,’ but production-wise it doesn’t show up,” he said.

“A lot of things are out of my control and it’s frustrating. But at the same time, we’re finding ways to win games. Finding ways to come out of these games with W’s. Even though it wasn’t very much of the time offensively , we got it done. So yeah, there’s frustration there. You want to — I want to be able to — it’s done on a much more subtle level for a lot of these games. It is what it is. But I can look back on the season and be happy with what I put on tape and the things I was asked to do, I feel like I did my job. That’s all you can do.”

In 2022, Kupp signed a three-year, $80 million contract extension with the Rams. His salary cap hits 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 is also owed roster bonuses totaling $12.5 million over the next two seasons per OTC. The $7.5 million roster bonus owed to Kupp in 2025 will trigger on March 19.

Kupp also said he expects 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.

“I always try to take some time, just be quiet, be still and reflect on what it was and what the season has been,” he said. “But I’m always excited. There’s always a part of you that anytime that’s taken away (referring to the Rams’ divisional-round loss in Philadelphia), you wake up in the morning a champion on top. “Hey , we want to start again.”

“You just have to fight it because you have to give yourself a chance to look back at what this season was and appreciate the work that was put in.”

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(Photo: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)