If Adam Thielen had it his way, he'd still be playing for the Minnesota Vikings. The wide receiver agreed to a three-year, $25 million contract with the Carolina Panthers in free agency. Thielen joined the Panthers less than 10 days after being released by the Vikings.
“I think there are like two sides of it,” Adam Thielen told the Daily Delivery podcast Thursday. “It was a bummer. I didn't want to leave Minnesota. I wanted to end my career there. Obviously, that would be the perfect fairy-tale way to do it, right? But that's not reality. I'm so thankful for that organization, (general manager) Kwesi (Adofo-Mensah) and (Kevin O'Connell) and the staff. The way they handled this throughout the process was first-class.”
The Vikings chose to part ways with Thielen in large part because of his $19.97 million cap number for the 2023 season. Minnesota deemed it too steep of a price to pay for a veteran who averaged 721 receiving yards over the past two years.
Thielen's 70 receptions would've ranked first on the Panthers in the 2022 season. He's Carolina's new No. 1 receiver after the team traded D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears as part of the deal that landed the Panthers the top pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Thielen spent the first nine seasons of his NFL career with the Vikings, catching 534 passes for 6,682 yards and 55 touchdowns. The 32-year-old grew up in Minnesota and played college football at Minnesota State.
“It was just pretty clear that they had a different vision for me than maybe I had for a way that I could help the team win games,” Thielen said. “There wasn't a wrong thing. There wasn't disrespect on either side. I think it was just time for both sides to move on.”
The Panthers are hoping that Thielen can help No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young develop into one of the league's top quarterbacks.
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