Should the Pittsburgh Steelers have interest in Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp? A former All-Pro, he is past his prime, but still skilled and at a position of need. Kupp himself revealed that the Rams are looking to trade him, but what is the cost?
“I don’t think that’s what they need right now”, Mark Kaboly said of the Steelers being interested in Cooper Kupp, on the Kaboly + Mack podcast. “I think he is definitely on the way back end of his career. If you look at him last year, he was a shell of himself the last six to eight games coming off that injury he [had] early in the season. He looked good for a couple of games and then he just disappeared with a really good offense. A really good coordinator. A really good quarterback. I don’t think that’s what you want right now”.
Value is relative, but there are some concrete components. Kupp, for example, is due $12.5 million in base salary this year with a $7.5 million signing bonus. Do the Steelers, or any other teams, view him as worth $20 million at this point in his career?
Kaboly doesn’t think the Steelers view Kupp in that light. “They would never pay that on top of a $12.5 million base salary”, he said. “You’re looking at a crazy amount of money there for a 32-year-old on the backside of his career”.
Of course, if the Rams are willing to eat some money, which it seems they are, it changes the equation. They did that when the Steelers traded for Allen Robinson II, so they could do it with Kupp. If they are motivated to move him, it makes sense, as the alternative might be just releasing him.
Kaboly eventually admitted that he wouldn’t “shoo” Kupp away if the Steelers got him for the right price. “But I’m not going out like it’s the Cooper Kupp three or four years ago”, he added. He also questioned how much interest Kupp will actually draw around the league and wondered if he might not be released instead. Ben Roethlisberger is a fan of the Steelers adding Kupp, but he doesn’t have to balance a salary cap or manage a draft.
The first thing the Steelers have to acknowledge about Cooper Kupp is that he is not durable at this point. He has missed at least five games in each of the past three seasons. In his final three regular-season games, he caught four passes for 53 yards on nine targets.
The Steelers have to ask themselves why that is, and whether they can get more out of Kupp. On the season, he caught 67 passes on 100 targets for 710 yards and six touchdowns. While that would be fine production for a No. 2 target, you don’t want to pay too much for it. And $20 million, plus a draft pick, would certainly be too much.
