{"id":23219,"date":"2025-05-04T13:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23219\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T13:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T13:45:11","slug":"ex-vikings-star-adam-thielen-says-hes-bracing-for-big-career-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/23219\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Vikings Star Adam Thielen Says He’s Bracing for Big Career Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since moving on from the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> two seasons ago, Adam Thielen has continued to carve out a legacy with the Carolina Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his first season in Carolina, Thielen paced the Panthers with 103 receptions and 1,014 yards receiving — becoming just one of eight receivers age 33 or older to reach 100 receptions in a season.<\/p>\n

He has been a steady contributor and catalyst for the development of Bryce Young<\/a>, who took major strides in his second season.<\/p>\n

However, entering the final year of his contract, Thielen, who turns 35 in August, admitted that he is bracing for a change.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen<\/p>\n

Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images <\/p>\n

On Friday, May 2, Thielen admitted he’s facing the reality that the 2025 season may be his swan song, saying he’s “definitely winding down” his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be, yeah,\u201d Thielen told The Athletic’s Joe Person<\/a>, addressing that this might be his final year as a player. \u201cI told you guys at the end of the season, like every year, you look back and you say what left do I have to give to this game? I talked to my family, and they wanted me to keep playing. So it\u2019ll be the same process. I\u2019m not gonna think about that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process-driven Thielen has maintained that he’s continued to gauge his interest in playing every offseason, including discussing it with his family.<\/p>\n

However, Thielen is the oldest active wide receiver in the NFL<\/a>, and his expiring contract could be the writing on the wall. If no team offers him a deal that he sees worthwhile next offseason, he may consider hanging up the cleats for good.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Thielen touted his excitement about the upcoming season and “what could happen” for a Panthers team that went 5-12 last season but ended the year averaging 31.3 points and going 2-1 in its final three games.<\/p>\n

Thielen will also play a mentor role for No. 1 wide receiver Tetairoa McMillian, who was selected No. 8 overall by Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since moving on from the Minnesota Vikings two seasons ago, Adam Thielen has continued to carve out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[4128,7,10733,233,259,2529,6,832,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-23219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-adam-thielen","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-inside-the-vikings","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-vikings","13":"tag-minnesotavikings","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-rumors","16":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114449870036066784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}