Packer Central

MMQB Roundtable: Packers Should Have Signed This Receiver

The Green Bay Packers failed to land one of the top veterans this offseason. Should Packers GM Brian Gutekunst have “done all (he) could to sign” this former star?

Bill Huber

Cooper Kupp catches a pass during the Rams' minicamp in 2022.
Cooper Kupp catches a pass during the Rams' minicamp in 2022. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Davante Adams, DK Metcalf and Cooper Kupp. All three receivers would have made sense for the Green Bay Packers, with Adams’ ties to Green Bay and praise for quarterback Jordan Love, Metcalf’s size, speed and youth, and Kupp’s productivity and ties to coach Matt LaFleur.

Kupp was the only player the Packers seriously pursued but he opted to return to Washington to sign with the Seattle Seahawks. Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback staff discussed one move general managers should have made.

For the Packers, it was signing Kupp.

“If I was Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst, I would’ve done all I could to sign Kupp,” Iain MacMillan said.

Kupp, a former All-Pro who will turn 32 in June, would have provided leadership and mentorship for a “young wide receiver core” that “is talented” but struggled through fits of inconsistency last season.

As MacMillan pointed out, the Packers finished with the third-most drops in 2024 overall. The receivers were the main culprits. Green Bay’s receivers had the most drops. Of 84 receivers who were targeted at least 50 times, Dontayvion Wicks had the second-highest drop rate, Jayden Reed the third-highest and Romeo Doubs the 19th-highest.

The only player who caught the ball well, Christian Watson, is out with a torn ACL.

“Bringing in a veteran, sure-handed player such as Kupp to play a leadership role in a young Packers receiver room would have done great things for this team,” MacMillan stated. “His impact off the field may have been even more important than his impact on the field.”

Leadership is good but production is better. And that was an issue with Kupp. In 2021, he won the Receiving Triple Crown with 145 receptions, 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. It was one of the greatest individual performances by a receiver in NFL history.

He was on his way to a repeat season in 2022, when he caught 75 passes for 812 yards and six touchdowns in nine games. However, he missed the final eight games of that season and five games apiece in 2023 and 2024. During those two-and-a-half seasons, the Rams played 42 games in the regular season. Kupp was on the field for 24.

Cooper Kupp catches a pass during the Rams' minicamp in 2022.
Cooper Kupp catches a pass during the Rams' minicamp in 2022. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

After being released by the Los Angeles Rams, Kupp signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks; a native of Yakima, Wash., who starred at Eastern Washington, Seattle was a natural fit for Kupp. Details of the contract are not available, but between the dollars and the locale, prying Kupp away from Seattle would have been quite a chore for Gutekunst.

Quite an expensive chore for an aging receiver with injury issues and with decreasing efficiency. While he caught 67 passes for 710 yards in 12 games last year, his 47.0 percent success rate ranked 71st among the aforementioned group of 50-target receivers. That means he caught a lot of passes that failed to keep the offense ahead of the sticks on first and second down or failed to convert on third down.

For his part, Kupp believes he’s got plenty of game.

“If the things that I see in my head, if the things I envision when I play football, I see myself doing things,” Kupp said after signing with Seattle. “If I wasn't seeing that on tape. If I wasn't able to make that stuff come to life, I wouldn't be playing football anymore.

“And I still see that. I still see myself playing this game at a very high level. I see myself as an ascending player. Any narrative that is any different is just someone that hasn’t watched a whole lot of film. Obviously, it's tough because I get to see every rep I take. I feel so good about the football that I can play still, and thankful for the Seattle Seahawks and their belief in me, and real excited about being able to bring that to life the next few years here.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.