Can I Sign up for Chase Sapphire Preferred then switch to Chase Sapphire after a year to avoid the annual fee?

Can I sign up for the preferred card, get the extra $250 reward ($500 instead of $250 after spending 3k), keep it for a year (fee of $95 waived for first year), then switch into the regular chase sapphire card?

I have used the trick in the past where I called and said I would like to cancel my card instead of pay the annual fee to have them waive the fee for me. Wondering if I could downgrade to avoid the fee in this case? Anyone have experience with this sort of thing?