While NFL free agency is not even, technically, a week old, fact is, the market is all but dried up. Sure, there's still the last horses on the quarterback carousel that will need someone to sit on them--the Giants, the Steelers, the Browns--but most of the potential impact players are already long off the board.
In fact, the last major piece might have fallen into place on Friday, when the Seattle Seahawks got Cooper Kupp to agree to a three-year, $45 million contract. In the end, though Kupp had about a half-dozen suitors, it was going to be difficult for anyone to beat out the draw of playing near home for Kupp.
Kupp is from Yakima, Washington.
Kupp won the receiving Triple Crown in 2021, leading the NFL with 145 catches, 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. He's struggled with injuries since, with just 32 games played in the last three years. When he has played, his yardage-per-game has been dropping every year.
Last season, Kupp averaged 59.2 yards.
Still, Kupp makes a nice complementary receiver for a team that already has a star in place at WR1 and quarterback. That's the case in Dallas, which has CeeDee Lamb on one side, and Dak Prescott under center.
ESPN's Adam Schefter said that both Prescott and Lamb were in contact with Kupp about coming to Dallas to fill the wide-open hole at WR2. But Kupp turned down their entreaties, and the Cowboys were not going to spend the money to sign him, anyway.
"Last Thursday, the Cowboys reached out about Cooper Kupp and they were interested," Schefter said on his podcast, via SInow.com. "Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, who I understand it, were on the phone with Cooper Kupp talking to him about the idea of coming to Dallas, and it was floated out there. And then the Cowboys heard the numbers, and they were at numbers that the Cowboys weren't going to get to."
As things stand, the very underwhelming candidates to be the No. 2 receiver for Dallas are Jonathan Mingo and Jalen Tolbert,
