Cooper Kupp agrees with Seahawks on 3-year, $45 million deal: Source

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By Jourdan Rodrigue, Dianna Russini and Michael-Shawn Dugar

Cooper Kupp is headed back to his home state, as the veteran wide receiver agreed to terms Friday with the Seattle Seahawks on a three-year, $45 million contract, a league source told The Athletic.

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Kupp, who will play next season at age 32, was released by the Los Angeles Rams on Wednesday after eight seasons with the team. The move came after the team and Kupp’s representatives worked to find a trade but could not. The Yakima, Wash., native will now join the Rams’ NFC West rival, partnering with quarterback Sam Darnold as the Seahawks’ big additions after they traded quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf.

Washington back across my chest. Let’s go!!!!! pic.twitter.com/7TBbAvtMOj — Cooper Kupp (@CooperKupp) March 14, 2025

Kupp, a multiyear team captain, was the NFL’s triple crown winner and Super Bowl MVP in 2021, and had spent his entire career in L.A. after he was drafted in the third round in 2017. Since entering the league, Kupp has the sixth-most receptions (634), seventh-most touchdowns (57) and eighth-most receiving yards (7,776) among wide receivers.

Kupp finished the 2024 regular season with 67 catches for 710 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. His targets dwindled during the back stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs. In his 14 games (including the postseason) last season, Kupp had 10 or more targets just four times and eight or more targets six times.

Injuries have been partially to blame. Kupp dealt with a high-ankle sprain that sidelined him for four games in 2024 and has played in 12 games apiece in each of the last two seasons. In 2022, he played in just nine regular-season games.

Kupp said after the Rams’ divisional-round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that he planned to play football in 2025, though he allowed that the location was uncertain. The Rams had trade conversations about Kupp with other teams ahead of this year’s deadline.

“Do I want to play next year? Oh yeah,” he said, laughing. “There’s no doubt in my mind I want to play football. I feel like I’ve got a lot of good football left in me. I definitely will be playing — I will be playing football next year. That much I know.”

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How he fits

Kupp turns 32 in June, and he’s coming off a season of good-but-not-great production while missing time to injury. He hasn’t played a full season since his All-Pro season in 2021, which ended with the Yakima native and Eastern Washington alum winning Super Bowl MVP. Kupp is no longer that sort of difference maker, but he can still produce, and it’ll undoubtedly help to be reunited with Seattle passing game coordinator Jake Peetz, who was a Los Angeles Rams offensive assistant in 2022 and pass game specialist in 2023.

2025 impact

Four of Kupp’s touchdowns last season came in the red zone, an area in which the Seahawks need to improve after ranking 14th in efficiency in 2024. The Rams often put Kupp or a teammate on his side of the field in motion while operating out of stacked formations to help create space. The Seahawks should copy some of those strategies to get the best out of Kupp, who is still adept at separating from defenders on in-breaking routes and finding soft spots in zone coverage. Those traits should help Seattle’s third-down numbers as well.

Cap update

Kupp is Seattle’s highest-paid receiver, and the annual average salary on the total value of his contract ranks outside of the top 20 among wideouts. His Year 1 cap hit will likely fall within that same range, if not lower, among veteran wideouts. By comparison, Metcalf and Tyler Lockett — whom the Seahawks released last week — were set to be two of the most expensive wideouts in the league by 2025 cap hit. Seattle is recalibrating its books in that regard while planning to see little drop-off in terms of wide receiver production relative to spending.

Outlook

The Seahawks swapped coordinator Ryan Grubb for Klint Kubiak and exchanged Smith, Metcalf and Lockett for Darnold, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kupp. The coaching change speaks to the team’s switch from a shotgun-based, power-running attack that asked a lot of the signal caller to an under-center, wide-zone running scheme that coach Mike Macdonald feels is easier on not only the quarterback but also the offensive line. The Smith-Metcalf-Lockett trio is better than Darnold-Kupp-MVS from a talent standpoint, but between cap savings and draft capital acquired in the swap, Seattle figures the new-look unit will offer a much higher return on investment.

Seattle has 10 picks, including five within the first 92 selections, of the 2025 NFL Draft. None of what the team has done over the last week precludes the selection of a quarterback, receiver or both during the first two days of the draft.

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(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)

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