Just over three months after acquiring him in a trade from the Carolina Panthers, the Vikings waived veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen on Monday. He had come to them last week and asked to be released so he could look for another opportunity to wrap up what he’s revealed will be his final NFL season. The Vikings decided to grant that request. That process included making Thielen a healthy scratch on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, the move to release Thielen — and everything that led up to it — was a topic of discussion at head coach Kevin O’Connell’s weekly press conference on Monday.
“What I will say is just how much I appreciate Adam,” O’Connell said. “What he means to me, the organization. I think Adam Thielen’s a special person and a special player. I just wish him nothing but the best over these final few weeks of the year. Sounds like that might be the final few weeks of his career, and we wanted to make sure, after some dialogue, that we accommodated that.”
Back in late August, the Vikings needed help at wide receiver. Justin Jefferson had missed time in training camp. Jalen Nailor was banged up. Jordan Addison was suspended for the first three games of the season. In order to try to help young quarterback J.J. McCarthy succeed, the Vikings went out and traded the equivalent of a fourth-round pick to bring Thielen home. It was, on the surface, a bit of an overpay. But it was also a move that felt entirely justified at the time.
“If you look back on it, and I think it’s important to do that sometimes with things like this, when we acquired Adam, Justin had missed most of training camp with him hamstring, Speedy (Nailor) was dealing with an injury where we did not know if we would have him for the first two weeks of the season, and everybody knows we were gonna be without Jordan for the first three weeks,” O’Connell said. “And then beyond that, it was a matter of we felt like we had four capable starters and two young guys who we really like a lot in Tai (Felton) and Myles (Price) who were gonna be heavily involved in the kicking game.”
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The move simply didn’t pan out. Thielen played a good amount in the first three games of the season, as expected, but he only caught two passes in that stretch. And once Addison returned in Week 4, Thielen averaged fewer than nine offensive snaps per game over the next eight contests. Nailor, who has played well, held him off for the WR3 role, and each of the top three have stayed healthy. Thielen’s season-long stat line is eight catches on 18 targets for 69 yards, with three drops.
The Vikings knew Nailor’s injury wasn’t serious and that Addison would only be out for three weeks. What they maybe didn’t anticipate was that they’d get through the season (at least up to this point) without any of their three main receivers missing additional time. But in retrospect, they probably should’ve just signed a temporary fill-in free agent who wouldn’t have required parting with any draft picks to acquire.
“That was part of the dialogue at the time,” O’Connell said of knowing Addison’s suspension was just a three-week issue. “Obviously it would be a major thing for the first three weeks, and then we haven’t had a particular season where all three of your starters, once all available, have been all available. I think it got to the point where, just the reflection of this possibly being the final sequence of weeks in his career, I think he thought it was time to talk about it.”
This wasn’t about Thielen expressing frustration with the Vikings over his role. It was more about wanting a chance to possibly play a bit more — and for a contender — as he finishes out his career.
“Adam’s such a good guy,” O’Connell said. “Knowing we had pretty remarkable health in that receiver room this year, we were trying to find ways to get him tagged in there on some plays here and there. We haven’t had a lot of plays (in general) as of late, that’s been a big issue. Adam also acknowledged, look, Speedy’s playing great and Jordan and Jets are Jordan and Jets.
“Adam and I talk a lot, there was zero negativity to the conversations. It was more so the competitor in him, and he wants to finish this thing off the right way. Conversations were had with Kwesi and his staff and this was the outcome that came out of it. He’s one of those players that will always hold a spot in my heart, getting to be a part of that first team (in 2022) and such an impactful player in our organization.”
The trade was objectively a flop for GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings. They parted with real draft capital to acquire a guy who wound up making a very slight impact on their season. But that became true several weeks ago, so at this point, there was no reason not to honor Thielen’s request.
“It’s one of those things where there’s really not a lot of negatives,” O’Connell said. “Although this ends with a transaction like this, it really is something where the dialogue and the positivity of relationships and things winning out in the end to do what’s best for the player.”
That’s one way to frame it, at least.
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