Patriots veteran WR trying to lure Super Bowl champion to New England

The New England Patriots are entering this offseason with a ton of money to spend and capital to trade to acquire players that can help them crawl out of the basement of the league after their second 4-13 season in a row..

Adding talented pass-catchers should be one of New England's top priorities this offseason, and there will be several options for the team to choose from.

One of those options may be Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who could be cut free by the team that drafted him one way or another, and Patriots wide receiver Kendrick Bourne is already trying to get him to New England.

The 31-year-old Super Bowl champion has caught 634 passes for 7,776 yards and 57 touchdowns in his career since coming out of Eastern Washington, where he and Bourne were teammates.

In 12 games last year for Los Angeles, Kupp caught 67 passes for 710 yards and six scores.

At this point, Kupp has two years remaining on his contract with $5 million left in guaranteed salary. According to Over the Cap, the Rams could designate him as a post-June 1 cut and save $15 million while incurring a $14.78 million dead cap hit. They could also trade Kupp after June 1 and save $20 million and have just $9.78 million in dead cap.

If the Patriots traded for Kupp this year, he'd cost $20 million ($12.5 million in salary and $7.5 million in a roster bonus) for 2025 and $19.85 million in 2026 ($14.85 million in salary and $5 million in a roster bonus).

New England has the cap space to make that work, and while Kupp has battled injuries over the last three seasons, he's great when he's on the field and could be an offensive leader in a position group that desperately needs one.