Adam Thielen is heading back to Minnesota.
The Vikings and Carolina Panthers have finalized a trade that is sending the veteran wide receiver, along with a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 fourth-round pick, to Minnesota for a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick and a fifth-round pick in 2027.
Thielen was due $8.75 million in 2025, the final year of his contract, which will primarily be paid out by the Vikings, The Athletic's Joe Person reported Wednesday. The Panthers have already paid out $1.75 million in bonuses, while the Vikings will be responsible for the remaining $7 million.
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Thielen played nine seasons for the Vikings before leaving in free agency in 2023 to sign a three-year, $25 million contract with the Panthers. He played 27 games over the past two seasons in Carolina, recording 151 receptions for 1,629 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.
Thielen's QB connections
Thielen has found success with Sam Bradford, Case Keenum, Kirk Cousins and Bryce Young. He's been the best friend of young and old quarterbacks, on good and bad teams.
The newest signal-caller he's lending his sure hands to is J.J. McCarthy, the second-year Vikings quarterback who missed his entire rookie season with a torn left meniscus.
Thielen is a much-needed reinforcement to a shorthanded Vikings receiving corps. Minnesota needed some wideout help, especially for the beginning of the regular season when Jordan Addison will be serving a three-game suspension. Plus, Jalen Nailor is dealing with a hand injury, and Rondale Moore is out for the year.
A 35-year-old Thielen is returning to his home state, where he rose from Division II Minnesota State standout to undrafted free agent to practice squad member to 53-man roster receiver to Pro Bowler.
Thielen's reunion with the Vikings isn't far removed from his 2013-22 run with the organization.
In the two years since that tenure, he enjoyed individual success in Carolina, where he also served as an influential veteran voice in the Panthers' locker room, although the team has posted only a 7-27 record in that span.
In 2023, Thielen pocketed the third 1,000-yard receiving season of his career. While Young struggled during a tumultuous rookie season that saw Frank Reich fired 11 games into his stay as head coach, Thielen proved to be a reliable target and vocal supporter for the 2023 No. 1 overall pick. That season, he caught 103 passes — the second most in his career — and tallied 1,014 receiving yards.
Last year, Thielen missed time early in the season after suffering a hamstring injury in the first half of a Week 3 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. He sustained the injury while extending for one of his five touchdown grabs on the year. Thielen returned from the injured reserve list and still clocked out with 48 receptions and 615 receiving yards in 10 games, actually averaging more receiving yards per game in 2024 (61.5) than he did in 2023 (59.6).
Thielen's continued NFL success in Carolina is the most recent chapter of his storybook pro career. After going undrafted in 2013, he was a Vikings practice squad member. The following year, however, he made the 53-man roster and didn't leave it until he signed with the Panthers in free agency close to a decade later.
Thielen's Pro Bowl seasons came in back-to-back years: 2017 and 2018. Earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2017 — a year in which Keenum stepped in and led the Vikings to the NFC championship game — Thielen reeled in 91 passes for 1,276 yards and four scores. In 2018, he piled up a career-high 113 grabs and 1,373 receiving yards, along with nine touchdowns.
Thielen's top-two receiving touchdown totals arrived in 2020 and 2021, in other words, the first two seasons of Justin Jefferson's Vikings career. Thielen pulled down 14 scores in 2020 and 10 more the next year.
Thielen's back with Jefferson in Minnesota, this time with McCarthy throwing passes.
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