Veteran wide receiver Adam Theilen made a change of scenery this offseason for the first time in his career. After spending the first nine seasons of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, Adam Thielen was released this offseason as a cap casualty.
He wasn’t a free agent for very long as the Carolina Panthers quickly scooped him up in free agency. The Panthers signed him to an eye-popping three-year, $25 million deal. That is considered a lot of money for a player who hasn’t reached the 1,000-yard plateau since 2018.
But, Carolina was in need of some veterans at the position after trading D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears as part of the package to land the No. 1 overall pick. He and DJ Chark will be joining Terrace Marshall Jr., Shi Smith and Laviska Shenault atop the depth chart.
Recently, Adam Thielen admitted that moving on from the Vikings isn’t what he wanted. Had he had his choice on the matter, the Minnesota native would have stayed with the only franchise that he has known as a professional. But, he knows the NFL is a business and understands the decision that was made.
“I think there are like two sides of it,” Thielen said on the Daily Delivery podcast, via NFL.com. “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, Kwesi [Adofo-Mensah] and [Kevin O’Connell] and the staff. The way they handled this throughout the process was first-class.”
Adam Thielen was set to have a cap hit of nearly $20 million in 2023. That wasn’t a number that the Vikings could conceivably carry on their salary cap as there were other holes on the roster to fill.
That, in addition to not being part of the roster-building plan that the front office and ownership came up with, led to the Vikings deciding to cut him. Minnesota was looking to add some younger talent to their wide receiver group and get more speed as well.
“You know, it’s really hard to explain the entire situation,” Thielen said. “I don’t think there was ever a point where I was unhappy with what I was doing. 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. 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.”
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to find a replacement for Adam Thielen as they drafted USC wide receiver Jordan Addison No. 23 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. Addison already has some big expectations for himself and Justin Jefferson as he will have a chance to contribute right away with such a large target share being up for grabs with Adam Thielen now in Carolina.
