The Los Angeles Rams were able to free up some cap space on Wednesday by restructuring wide receiver Cooper Kupp‘s contract, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. The team has a number of options for how to use that money and we should see it spent in the coming weeks.
Kupp signed a three-year, $80.1M contract extension almost exactly a year prior to this restructure, after winning the 2021 Offensive Player of the Year Award. The Eastern Washington product earned the honor by leading the league in all major receiving categories (145 receptions for 1,947 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns).
The restructured deal converted $13.92M of Kupp’s base salary into a signing bonus and opened up $10.44M in cap space for Los Angeles. While Kupp’s cap hit for this year reduced by that amount, it still looms large at $17.36M. His future cap hits also each increased by $3.48M.
The financial relief leaves the Rams with approximately $10.75M of cap space for the 2023 season. While many L.A. fans hold hopes that the move was a signal that the team was gearing up for a run at free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, they will likely end up disappointed. The more probable scenario is that the Rams need that money for players already in-house.
The Rams have a massive 40-man rookie class on their roster this summer. Of those rookies, 26 were signed as undrafted free agents. The remaining 14 were selected in April's draft. So far, Los Angeles has only signed four of those draft picks, leaving 10 rookies who still need to ink their initial four-year contracts. When those 10 rookies are under contract, the team is unlikely to have much of that cap space left over.
After missing eight games in 2022, Kupp will attempt a strong comeback this coming season as he tries to live up to his massive contract. In the meantime, the cap space opened up by his restructured deal has some potential in-house responsibilities before the team can go shopping with it.
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