Bears’ Big Splash: Cooper Kupp Suddenly Emerges as Top Chicago Target
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.
“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.
