ATLANTA — To miss a Super Bowl because of an injury is bad enough. To have it happen in your first Super Bowl seems especially cruel. In the case of Cooper Kupp, the standout slot receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, it’s hard to say whether the anguish this weekend will be greater for him or for his team.

Kupp, 25, entered his second season as one of the Rams’ top three wide receivers, alongside Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods, but in the team’s 5-0 start he emerged as the one quarterback Jared Goff would look for when things got particularly difficult. Kupp earned that trust by catching 75 percent of the passes thrown his way and scoring five touchdowns in those five games.

But on Sunday, as the Rams try to beat the New England Patriots and win the franchise’s first championship since the 1999 season, Kupp will be reduced to a spectator. A knee sprain cost him most of Weeks 6 through 8 and a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, which he sustained in Week 10, ended his season. Several high-profile players, like Carson Wentz, Von Miller and Jeremy Shockey, have found themselves in the same position in recent years, all feeling a deep sense of loss even as they tried to share their teammates’ joy.