After failing to find a trade partner, the Los Angeles Rams will release wide receiver Cooper Kupp when the NFL's new league year officially begins.
Another club absorbing the $20 million Kupp was due on his contract for 2025 always felt far-fetched, let alone giving up assets to do so. Nevertheless, the Super Bowl LVI MVP is now slated for unrestricted free agency. Suitors should crawl out of the woodwork with him hitting the open market. Chief among them is the Dallas Cowboys, or so we think.
Benjamin Allbright of KOA Colorado recently reported that "Dallas is certainly very in the mix" for Kupp, while NFL Network's Jane Slater says otherwise. Both are reputable reporters with credible sources, yet their intel is contradictory. Albeit odd for most teams, this isn't uncommon for a Cowboys organization run by owner/general manager Jerry Jones.
Cowboys rumors surrounding Cooper Kupp have Jerry Jones written all over them
Conflicting information from Slater and Allbright feels like the general fence-riding that Jones has mastered. The outspoken proprietor says (a lot of) things, but he doesn't always commit to them, as we've already witnessed first-hand as recently as January.
Jones was "open to moving forward" with former head coach Mike McCarthy earlier this offseason, only to let his contract expire days later. While the two sides couldn't agree on the length of a new deal, Dallas' lack of straightforward decision-making derailed their search for the latter's replacement.
We're talking about the same person who said the Cowboys are "all-in" for the 2024 campaign. At the time, they were in well-chronicled, dragged-out negotiations with franchise cornerstone Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Plus, their free agency class was headlined by additions of veterans like running back Royce Freeman and linebacker Eric Kendricks.
Roughly 10 months later, Jerry's eldest son and Dallas' executive vice president, Stephen Jones, said the Cowboys will be "selectively aggressive," whatever that means. Regardless, the squad's constant flip-flopping nature makes it hard to gauge where they truly stand on Kupp.
It presumably won't take long for Kupp to find his next home. Whether Dallas is a potential landing spot remains unclear, and that's on-brand for how things have been under Jones' guidance.