Adam Thielen figured he would eventually return to the Minnesota Vikings team facilities one day — quite literally one day, to retire as a Viking.
However, fate had other plans in store for the Minnesota native after the Carolina Panthers agreed to a trade that would reunite him with his former team of 10 years.
Thielen, 35, enters his 13th season in the NFL, and what former Panthers teammate Xavier Legette revealed is likely his last.
“I was shocked,” Legette said of Thielen’s trade to Minnesota. “But for real, I understand that he knew this was going to be his last year. Him playing where he started at, having that chance to go back and do that, I mean, it’s good for him.”
In the final year of the contract he originally signed with the Panthers, Thielen agreed to take a $2 million pay cut in his homecoming — a testament to his desire to return and help the team.
While there’s time for Thielen to change his mind, he has admitted he has considered retirement the past few offseasons, and there is no guarantee that he will be signed if he wants to play another year.
Born and raised in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Thielen’s homecoming appears to be a year ahead of schedule as he embarks on one last ride with the Vikings.
“Obviously you guys know without me saying it, how much this place means to me,” Thielen said on August 28. “The state, the city, this organization, [ownership], coaches, players. I couldn’t be more excited, and there’s nothing I could say to tell you how excited I am to be back home in my family.”
Thielen’s wife, Caitlin, offered insight into the decision to come back to Minnesota.
Adam Thielen Was ‘Adamant’ on Vikings Reunion, Panthers GM Says
Wide receiver concerns emerged at Vikings training camp, which prompted the trade for Thielen.
Justin Jefferson has been hampered by a hamstring injury. Jordan Addison is suspended for the first three games, and Jalen Nailor underwent an operation on his hand.
The calls for a reunion with Thielen continued to mount, and for good reason. Thielen has experience in Kevin O’Connell’s offense and has worked out with J.J. McCarthy the past two summers.
As trade talks started, Thielen became “adamant” on a deal getting done.
“It’s kinda hard, when I sit Adam Thielen down in my office and he is just really wanting to go there and he’s pretty adamant that ‘this is what I want, this is where I want to go,’ I didn’t really want to stand in his way,” Panthers general manager Dan Morgan said on WFNZ radio in Charlotte. “It was something that he was really convicted about. He wanted to go and finish his career there. Obviously he’s from there, he has a house there, he has young kids. There’s a human side to it, too.
“But at the same time, in my mind, I knew that I had to do what was best for the Carolina Panthers,” Morgan added. “So I wasn’t gonna give him away. A few offers that they did send over, it would’ve been a giveaway… we must’ve went through 10 different trade scenarios that we felt would work for us.”
The agreement came to be a complicated trade package that saw the Vikings send a fifth-round pick in 2026 and a fourth-round pick in 2027 to the Panthers in exchange for Thielen, a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick and a fifth-round pick in 2027.
Adam Thielen’s Wife Details Doubts of Trade Happening Days Before Deal Gets Done
GettyAdam Thielen and his family during pregame.
As the Panthers and Vikings worked to make a deal happen, it proved to be a tangled process, given that Carolina had relied on Thielen to be the elder statesman of the wide receiver room the past two years.
Adam’s wife, Cailtin, admitted that there were doubts of a deal getting done as their hopes seemed within reach.
“Literally two days before [the trade] happened, we were like, ‘It’s not going to happen. No one’s going to budge, the deal’s not going to get done. Like, it’s just not going to happen,’ ” Caitlin said in an Instagram story, per Sports Illustrated. “Adam loves his team, he loved his receiver group, everything. But there’s something special obviously that he wanted to finish here and be here for if it was an opportunity. So yes, he did push to come back because he really was excited about the opportunity and he knows the system pretty well.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Adam Thielen Bracing for Big Career Move After Vikings Trade appeared first on Heavy Sports.