To trade Cooper Kupp, the Rams will likely have to pay a chunk of his 2025 compensation

When receiver Cooper Kupp removed his Rams helmet after the divisional round loss to the Eagles, it was likely for the last time. Now that the Rams are trying to trade him, they'll have to be willing to absorb a sizable chunk of his 2025 pay in order to find a suitor.

Kupp is due to make $20 million in 2025, in the form of a $12.5 million salary and a $7.5 million roster bonus. Last year, $5 million of the bonus became fully guaranteed.

His days of making $20 million per year seem to be over. If a new team expects him to take less as part of a trade, all he has to do is refuse — and the end result is that the Rams will have to pay him the full $20 million or cut him and owe $5 million.

That could require the Rams to commit to paying more of the $20 million, in order to work out a trade. They'd basically be trading Kupp and cash/cap space for whatever they can get from a new team by way of one or more draft picks.

They also could pay Kupp the $7.5 million roster bonus and squat on his non-guaranteed salary pending a potential trade. That would make it harder for Kupp to find a landing spot, if he's cut too late in the offseason to get a contract approaching his current market value.

In the end, the entire exercise could be aimed at getting Kupp to take less. If/when he realizes that no one else is willing to pay him more than what the Rams are willing to pay on a reduced deal, he might decide to take the $7.5 million plus whatever else the Rams offer for 2025. With a contract that currently runs through 2026, the revised agreement could rip up the final year, making him a free agent next March.

Kupp's decision to go public with the Rams' effort to trade him could make him less inclined to take less in order to stay, even if he'll make less than that with a new team. One key fact as it relates to his contract is whether the $5 million guarantee has offset language. (Usually it does, but the Rams have been known to include language that removes the offset obligation.)

However it plays out, he'll make $7.5 million simply by being on the team before the roster bonus is due. He might be willing to balk at an eventual request, from the Rams or a new team, to take less than $20 million and roll the dice on being cut. In the end, the Rams might have to kick in more than $7.5 million to get a team to take on the balance of his $20 million compensation package.