A great player has become available in trade discussions, and as you would imagine, Denver Broncos fans are having a heck of a time debating whether the team should go after him. Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp announced that the Rams have informed him he would be traded this offseason, and any fan base with any semblance of a wide receiver need is wondering, will we get involved? Should we get involved?
The Denver Broncos should absolutely be involved. Cooper Kupp is precisely the type of player who could help this team drastically in 2025. Unless the Broncos have their sights clearly set on Tee Higgins, Chris Godwin, or another trade like Davante Adams of the Jets, they should be willing to fork over the Day 3 pick for one of the best receivers in the league over the last handful of years.
Why should they make this kind of trade? What would it cost financially to acquire a player like Cooper Kupp? Should his recent history of injuries and availability prevent the Broncos from pursuing?
Denver Broncos need to make a trade for WR Cooper Kupp if price is right
I was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with me and my family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don’t agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA.
— Cooper Kupp (@CooperKupp) February 4, 2025
Still, if there’s… pic.twitter.com/XWmbGVscGy
Especially if the Rams are willing to pay a certain portion of his salary or guaranteed money (which they reportedly are), this could be a no-brainer for Broncos GM George Paton and head coach Sean Payton. Kupp is going to be 32 this coming season, which is obviously not ideal, but could this be a worthwhile 2-3 year investment?
Kupp has a $5 million roster bonus due in mid-March, which is why the Rams are motivated to agree to a trade as soon as possible. And with a $12.5 million base salary, Kupp has a rather large overall cap number close to $30 million this season. But it's also important to remember that a team like the Broncos would not be trading for a $30 million cap hit.
Any deal that gets done with Kupp is likely to include the Rams taking on a portion of the guaranteed money to facilitate the deal, and then likely a renegotiation of his contract going forward. Kupp will get his guaranteed cash one way or the other, but a trade like this requires a bit of salary cap gymnastics.
It would be very weird for the Rams to trade Kupp to a non-contender with a lot of cap space, and it wouldn't make sense for him to want a trade like that. We're likely to see Kupp traded to a team that has a legitimate chance of contending in 2025 and the Rams will "do right" by him. They will obviously want as much in return as they can possibly get, but allowing Kupp to release the statement he did on social media is indicative that the Rams know they aren't getting much at all.
The cost for a team like the Broncos to acquire him might be a Day 3 pick this year and a conditional Day 3 pick next year. Something like that.
As far as the financial cost, the Broncos could get the Rams to take some of Kupp's guaranteed money and/or give him a signing bonus upon arrival and add some void years to his deal to get the cap hits down the next two seasons. Teams do stuff like that all the time. The Rams want to get his deal off the books completely.
So do the Broncos actually make sense? They absolutely do.
Broncos & Bengals make all the sense in the world https://t.co/UW4BUu2ekJ
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) February 4, 2025
Interesting that a guy who spent years in the Sean Payton offense would immediately say the Broncos are one of the teams that make the most sense here. Why is this significant? Because Chase Daniel knows the Sean Payton offense and isn't giving an opinion here based on the team that makes the most sense financially for Cooper Kupp. He's not thinking in terms of the cap implications.
He's thinking in terms of the football fit.
And even though Kupp has missed 20 games over the last three seasons combined, the Broncos also have a training staff that has kept guys on the field over the last two years with a major focus on minimizing long-term injuries and soft-tissue injuries. Do injuries still happen? Yes, but the Broncos' injury report was almost completely clean late in the season and into the playoffs. A player like Kupp might want to come to Denver knowing that he's going to be staying on the field.
Last season, Kupp had three games with over 100 yards receiving. Courtland Sutton has had four such games over the last three seasons combined.
The Broncos have a young quarterback in Bo Nix who would benefit tremendously from a receiver like Kupp, a guy who is always open and can create offense for you. Over the last three years, Kupp's per-17 game averages are 104 receptions, 1,164 yards, and nine touchdowns. That doesn't include the non-measurable impact on the game Kupp has as a blocker, where he is one of the best in the NFL.
Kupp is a receiver who does the dirty work. He's got great hands. He gets open quickly. Yes, he's going to be 32 this coming season, but he could be a huge help for Bo Nix in a short window and would cost the Broncos minimal NFL Draft capital.
Considering they could address this area of need so early in the offseason, this is a move I hope the front office is in favor of. You can certainly poke holes and make an argument against acquiring a player like Kupp, but he could be exactly what this young Denver Broncos team needs. A receiver who has made clutch catches in a lot of January games with a ring in his jewelry case?
If the price is right, this move is a no-brainer.