While the Seahawks made two big moves Wednesday — agreeing to sign veteran receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and rush end DeMarcus Lawrence — some of the most intriguing activity was happening behind the scenes.
On what was the first day of the new league year, the Seahawks were putting the finishing touches on the signing of quarterback Sam Darnold and the trade of DK Metcalf to the Steelers.
While both had been agreed to earlier, neither could become official until Wednesday.
Maybe most intriguing, though, were the rumors that continued to circulate surrounding a player who could help Seattle replace Metcalf — longtime Rams star Cooper Kupp.
Confirming what had been speculated for weeks, the Rams officially released Kupp after eight years with the team shortly after the new league year began at 1 p.m. Wednesday, having not been able to pull off a trade.
Kupp’s age (he turns 32 on June 15), recent injury issues (he’s played just nine, 12 and 12 games the last three seasons) and hefty contract (including a cap hit of $29.78 million this season) were why the Rams wanted to trade him — and why no other team took the bait.
The minute he was released, though, teams were said to be lining up to talk to Kupp, with Seattle confirmed by a source to be right at the front.
The Seahawks’ interest seemed obvious from the start because Kupp is from Yakima and played at Eastern Washington, Seattle needs receivers to replace Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and the Seahawks’ new scheme features some characteristics similar to that of Sean McVay’s with the Rams. Seattle’s passing game coordinator, Jake Peetz, was with the Rams in 2022 and 2023.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network added further fuel to the Seattle-Kupp rumors when he mentioned the Seahawks along with Jacksonville (new coach Liam Coen overlapped as an assistant with Kupp in LA for four years) and Houston (new Texans OC Nick Caley spent the last two years with the Rams) as three teams likely to try to sign him.
The Patriots (tons of cap space and need) and Packers (head coach Matt LaFleur was the Rams’ OC in Kupp’s first year in 2017) were also rumored interested.
As Rapoport noted, Kupp seems sure to have to take a big pay cut from the $23.3 million average per year of his Rams deal to maybe $11-12 million a year.
“Seahawks have some familiarity there scheme-wise, system-wise and personnel wise from the Rams,’’ Rapoport said, adding he thought a Kupp decision “happens pretty quickly.’’
But as of early evening Wednesday, Kupp’s future was still undecided and indications were he was not due to make a decision until Thursday morning at the earliest.
If the Seahawks were to reel in Kupp to pair with Valdes-Scantling they might be done making significant moves at receiver.
Those two, along with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, would give Seattle a solid veteran trio to take into the offseason, with Jake Bobo also still on the roster, with the Seahawks then likely to use one of their 10 picks to add another pass catcher or two in the draft.