One of the bigger moves that the Los Angeles Rams made last offseason was moving on from wide receiver Cooper Kupp. Over the previous eight years, Kupp had become a franchise legend, earning the triple crown and winning the Super Bowl MVP in 2021. However, following injuries and a drop in production, the Rams decided to move on.
Kupp had a cap-hit of $22.26 million in 2025 and the Rams simply were not going to pay that. It’s possible that Kupp would have taken less money to stay with the Rams, but given the direction of the offense with Puka Nacua, it made more sense to go in a different direction. Kupp barely had 700 yards in 2024 while playing 12 games.
On Sunday, Kupp caught a touchdown against his former team in the NFC Championship game. Following the win, The Athletic’s Mike Silver put out what was essentially a PR puff piece for Kupp, painting the Rams as the bad guy throughout the entire situation. Wrote Silver,
That’s really just the beginning of a character assassination of Rams’ brass and internal workings.
The Rams Urged Kupp to Retire and Sabotaged his free agency
According to Silver, the Rams actively sabotaged the free agency period for Kupp, smearing his image around the league. After urging Kupp to retire, Silver reports that the Rams told teams not to pay him anything more than the league minimum and that injuries had taken their toll. These rumblings that allegedly came from the Rams resulted in doubts around the league
However, it wouldn’t have taken people around the league to jump to that conclusion on their own. Since Kupp had 1,947 yards in 2021, he had 2,259 yards in the next three years combined. The former Rams wide receiver only played nine games in 2022 while playing 12 games in 2023 and 2024. Anybody who watched Kupp last year would have come to the conclusion that there was a drop in level.
For most of this year, that was also the case. Kupp’s 593 yards receiving were the lowest of his career outside of 2018 when he played just eight games. His 1.46 yards per route run was the lowest of his career. The efficiency has taken a steep fall since Kupp got hurt in 2022.
Rams staffers causing a skirmish at halftime
“Late in the first half of that game, Kupp’s red-zone fumble had killed a potential Seattle scoring drive. According to several witnesses, the fallout from that play sparked a confrontation between Rams and Seahawks coaches as they spilled out of their upstairs boxes at half’s end and took a shared elevator ride to field level. The witnesses said several Rams assistants were discussing the fumble in question as they neared the elevator. One offensive coach asked which Seattle player had been responsible, and when another replied that it was Kupp, the coach (Drew Wilkins) snickered as though he expected the answer. That drew the ire of Seahawks outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge…Partridge, witnesses said, had to be held back by other Seahawks coaches in the packed elevator, averting a possible skirmish.”
It’s very possible that something like this did happen. However, the way Silver describes it makes it sound like a pair of high school mean girls bullying an outcast. A confrontation may have happened, but we’re also only getting one side of the story and it’s the story that favors Kupp. Rams defensive pass rush coordinator Drew Wilkins may have been talking about the fumble. It’s just seems unlikely that the cause of the skirmish happened as described.
Division rivals and coaches of those teams aren’t going to compliment each other in game. There’s going to be some internal smack talk. Just because this happened, it isn’t evidence that Kupp wasn’t respected within the Rams organization.
Mike Silver has a history
“And when that happens, if you are Cooper Kupp, you’ll no longer be invisible — to the casual fan, or to the skeptics who no longer wanted you.”
When it comes to pieces like this, it’s important to know where the source material is coming from. Silver has a history of doing this. For years, he enabled the Jeff Fisher regime. When Jared Goff was traded away, Silver painted the Rams as this sleazy organization that cast away this great quarterback. He is the ultimate ‘quid pro quo’ journalist. In exchange for access, Silver will write you a PR puff piece. However, that’s not journalism. He’s a publicist disguised as an insider and journalist.
If you read any piece from Mike Silver, the Rams always come out looking one way.
All of this starts in 2014 when Silver is given unprecedented access to the Rams’ war room and they drafted Michael Sam. Later that season, Silver made Fisher out to be the hero when special teams played a key role in the Rams beating the Seahawks while the Rams sat at 1-4 before the game.
In 2016 when the Rams season started with a 28-0 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Silver jumped to Fisher’s aid after a 17-13 win to the Arizona Cardinals. Silver described it as, “Christmas in Tinseltown could be pretty festive this year, and January could be even better.” The Rams won a single game the rest of the season. Silver made sure to include all of the excuses such as the move in the offseason and doing it with a backup quarterback to make Fisher’s 3-1 record look that much better.
When Fisher was fired, Silver covered for his buddy and called the transition from Fisher to interim John Fassell “awkward.” This ensured that the Rams didn’t come out in a positive light in that transition.
That same season, Silver wrote about Goff’s first career start. Despite going 17-for-34 for 134 yards, Silver wrote that Goff was ‘hardly overwhelmed by the moment.” He also made sure to mention that Goff handled the rain just as well as veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill. This paragraph sums it up nicely,
“He showed the propensity for smart, quick decision-making and trademark rapid release that made him such an enticing prospect. He picked up blitzes, uncorked some of the throws (like deep outs) that Keenum had trouble completing and made relatively few mistakes. Goff also slid in the pocket to extend throws and surprisingly did some damage with his feet, rushing four times for 11 yards. In the fourth quarter, he had a crowd-pleasing, 11-yard scamper (on third-and-10) that was called back because of an illegal block by left tackle Greg Robinson.”
Notice the dig on Case Keenum and mention of a big play being called back while a 134-yard performance comes out looking like an All-Pro one. It’s worth noting that Silver has deep connections to Cal as that’s where he went to school. Goff also happened to attend Cal like his father Jerry.
When Goff was benched in the 2020 playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, Silver made sure to publicize Goff’s perspective that it was “one of the “toughest toughest things” that the quarterback had to go through. After the trade, Silver wrote,
“Were we so inclined, we could spend paragraphs and paragraphs breaking down the dissolution of the once-airtight McVay/Goff connection, delving deep into the vagaries of the Rams’ schematic evolution (or lack thereof)…Routinely trashed this season on FOX telecasts, specifically those with Troy Aikman as the lead analyst, Goff could reasonably assume that McVay’s words about his quarterback’s play in network production meetings were far from glowing.”
McVay is consistently thrown under the bus in that piece. Silver finished that piece with, “It’s good to be wanted, and for the first time in awhile, Goff believes that is the case.” When Goff bounced back in 2024 and beat the Rams in the playoffs, Silver was there to capture the moment. After describing Goff as the equivalent of a teenage girl being dumped and eating ice cream on the couch, Silver got into the comeback. Said Silver,
“There’s another reason Goff is so intent on trying to master his craft: He’s aware of his reputation, and still a bit sensitive about the prevailing perception that McVay, known for his schematic acumen, discarded him because the coach needed an upgrade in that department. It’s a narrative that began in 2017 when it became clear that McVay, then the youngest coach in modern NFL history, was giving his second-year quarterback cues via the in-helmet communications system as Goff waited to receive the snap…Because McVay had become the brightest young star in his profession — the joke in league circles was that even his acquaintances were getting head-coaching interviews — it was easy to conclude that Goff wasn’t good enough to bring the coach’s brainy schemes to life. The Rams’ decision to deal him just weeks after he’d come off the bench to win a road playoff game with a broken right thumb seemed abrupt and suggested that there were deep-seated reasons for McVay’s dissatisfaction.”
Notice how the Rams come off as the bad guy and Goff as this piece of trash that was cast aside and rose from the ashes like a phoenix. This is simply what Silver does. This is someone that was denied access to the Raiders press box in 2009
What to make of the Kupp Story
There are a lot of parallels to how Silver writes the Kupp and Goff stories. Kupp was discarded by this franchise that no longer wanted him and schemed him out of the offense. The Rams tarnished both Goff and Kupp’s image around the league, but they were still able to overcome it on their new teams.
This isn’t to say that the Rams handled each situation perfectly. McVay has admitted as much when it comes to Goff’s situation in particular. At the same time, are we to believe that a top tier organization in the NFL tried to sabotage Kupp’s future in the league? Silver describes one of the best coaching staffs as acting like high school mean girls snickering about a Kupp’s fumble.
Davante Adams recently praised the Rams organization. Jalen Ramsey, who was traded, has consistently talked highly of his time in Los Angeles. It shouldn’t come as a shock, but most elite athletes are going to feel disrespected or like they have a chip on their shoulder when a team moves on. That’s also the business side of the NFL.
The Rams arguably could have moved Kupp for a small trade package. However, they released him which allowed him to pick his next destination. That resulted in Kupp being able to return home to the state of Washington. He also signed a contract much higher than the league minimum and earned $9.3 million in 2025.
Again, there are two sides to every story and, in this case especially, it’s important to consider the source. Silver remains a publicist disguised as an insider journalist who will write a positive piece in exchange for access or an interview. It shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that Kupp left that stadium on Sunday without speaking to the media, yet Mike Silver just so happened to recently speak with him and his family about his Rams breakup. Silver got his exclusive interview and Kupp got a positive article in return.
This is nothing new with Silver, especially as it pertains to the Rams.
