Kevin Seifert
The Minnesota Vikings brought back Adam Thielen on Wednesday in a trade with the Carolina Panthers, giving the veteran receiver a chance to finish his career in the state where he was born, raised and played most of his NFL career.
The Panthers will receive a 2026 fifth-round draft pick and a 2027 fourth-round pick, while the Vikings will get Thielen, a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.
Sources told ESPN that the Vikings will pay the remainder of Thielen’s salary for 2025, worth approximately $7 million.
Born in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Thielen played collegiately at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and spent the first 10 seasons of his professional career with the Vikings. Released after the 2022 season, he will return to alleviate a lack of Minnesota receiver depth caused by the three-game suspension of starter Jordan Addison and a series of injuries to other receivers during training camp.
Depending upon how the next two weeks proceed, Thielen is a strong candidate to start alongside Justin Jefferson in the Vikings’ Week 1 game at the Chicago Bears (Sept. 8, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC).
Thielen compiled more career catches (534) during his time with the Vikings than any player in team history other than Cris Carter and Randy Moss, both of whom are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That includes 70 catches in his final season, which overlapped with coach Kevin O’Connell’s first season in Minnesota.
Thielen’s knowledge of O’Connell’s scheme made him particularly attractive to the Vikings, who lost receiver Rondale Moore to a season-ending knee injury in their preseason opener and are uncertain about the short-term status of No. 3 receiver Jalen Nailor, who suffered a hand injury Aug. 14 and has not practiced since.
In addition, Thielen has also spent time with quarterback J.J. McCarthy in each of the past two summers as part of a group of Minnesota-based NFL players who work out together before training camp.
Thielen, 35, went undrafted in 2013 and did not immediately sign with a team as a rookie free agent. The Vikings invited him to their rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, part of a program at the time to use locally based players to ensure they had enough players to run 11-on-11 drills in the camp.
Thielen signed a full contract after that camp. He developed into a starter midway through the 2016 season and earned consecutive Pro Bowl berths with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2017 and 2018.
But the Vikings’ offense began to shift toward Jefferson after he emerged as a rookie in 2020, and by 2022, Thielen was a secondary option. The Vikings released Thielen after the season rather than continuing to carry a contract that called for a $19.97 million cap hit for 2023.
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