Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen credits Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young with his reunion with his old team.
“I think that’s [what] makes it so crazy, because I just didn’t think that this was even a possibility,” Thielen said. “I thought the next time I would be talking to you guys is when I was signing a one-day contract and retiring. So this is pretty surreal. I’m going to take advantage of every second that I’m back in this building. And I’ve tried to do that from a little bit of a different perspective.”
Thielen signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State in 2013. He made the Vikings’ practice squad as a rookie, then made the final 53-man roster in his second season in 2014. He spent a total of ten seasons with the Vikings. He had his best season in Minnesota in 2018, catching 113 passes for 1,373 yards and 9 touchdowns. He had a career-high 14 TDs in 2020.
Thielen was a cap casualty for the Vikings in the 2023 offseason and signed a 3-year, $25 million deal with the Carolina Panthers in March of that year. He was a thousand-yard receiver again in 2023. Last season, he played in just 10 games, catching 48 passes for 615 yards and 5 TDs. On Wednesday, the Vikings sent a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Panthers for Thielen, a conditional 2026 seventh-rounder and a 2027 fifth-rounder.
Thielen said he heard rumblings on social media about a potential trade. But because of the relationships he had built with the people inside the Panthers organization, he felt he had to keep his focus on where he was at the time.
One of those relationships was with quarterback Bryce Young. The 2023 first overall pick was Thielen’s quarterback for two years, and he said that without Young giving him opportunities as a receiver, he would not have had the opportunity to return to Minnesota.
“He’s a great man,” Thielen said of Young. “He’s a great leader. He’s a great quarterback, and you saw that at the end of last year. The stuff that he had to go through, the adversity his first two years in the league, you don’t wish that upon anybody. And so for him to kind of handle that and then to where he’s at right now, it just says a lot about his character and who he is and what kind of player he’s going to be in this league. So, so much respect for him, ‘cause I’m probably not here today. I guarantee I’m not here today without him.”
He also said his experience in Carolina gave him perspective. A native of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Thielen was constantly surrounded by family and friends during his time with the Vikings. But he and his wife and children were forced to move to Carolina and make a life for themselves on their own. That time away gave him a greater appreciation for the city of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota, and the Vikings organization.
“Just his work ethic, his mindset, his communication of how he’s doing things,” he said. “You know, sometimes you get in the habit of just going out there and throwing the football and not really thinking more than that ... So, um it’s cool to see that approach especially from a young guy.”
He also reunites with superstar receiver Justin Jefferson. Thielen and Jefferson were teammates for three seasons.
“I compare it to when you’re a kid,” he said. “You’re around your friends all the time, you leave for college or whatever, you come back and you see them and it’s like you never left, like it was yesterday, and that’s how I felt with Justin. It was like we’ve never been on a different team. Love that guy to death and have so much respect for him, on and off the field, and we have such a great relationship.”
