Could the Detroit Lions actually make a move to acquire one of the best wide receivers in the league? It is certainly a wild idea… absurd even.
If there’s a list of untouchable players in the NFL, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp is on it somewhere. A historically productive 2021 season, capped by a Super Bowl-winning touchdown catch and winning MVP of the big game, locks him onto said list.
The Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams did a notable bit of business last offseason with the Matthew Stafford trade. It was not an absurd trade though, as Stafford was looking to join a team with a shot to win a title and the Rams made plenty of sense.
With the premise of “absurd NFL trade offers for untouchable stars”, as in trade offers (let alone actual trades) that are patently unlikely to happen this offseason, Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report entertained some wild scenarios.
Kupp is departing a championship season in LA, all the while, recording one of the best statistical years by a wide receiver in NFL history. In 21 total games for the Rams this past season, Kupp brought in 178 catches for 2,425 yards and 22 touchdowns. He’s not going anywhere. But….
What if the Detroit Lions made a trade offer for Cooper Kupp?
In absurdly matching the Lions and Rams in a deal to bring Kupp to Detroit, Sobleski actually presents pieces of a somewhat easy and solid logic line.
"“Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes knows all about what Kupp can do after previously serving as the Rams’ director of college scouting when the organization chose the wide receiver in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft.” “These two franchises made the move of the offseason last year when the Rams lured Matthew Stafford to the City of Angels and sent Jared Goff, a pair of first-round selections and a third-round pick to Detroit. The familiarity won’t give Detroit an edge in this instance.”Detroit can suggest shipping the Rams’ original first-round pick in 2023, as well as the Lions’ in the same draft, in an appeal to add the best pass-catcher in the world to the league’s worst wide receiver corps.”"
The Rams could clear almost $14.9 million in 2022 cap space by trading Kupp after June 1, or the move not being official until after June 1. As Sobleski speculatively suggested, two first-round picks (including the 2023-first rounder they sent to the Lions for Stafford) would rebuild the Rams’ “war chest of draft assets.”
Multiple first-round picks might not be enough for the Rams to even consider trading Kupp, now or anytime in the near future. But Lions’ fans can still have a little fun dreaming about a bold move to add one of the best receivers in the league, who’s also firmly in his prime, even it’s just absurd.