{"id":321858,"date":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/321858\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","slug":"panthers-trading-adam-thielen-to-vikings-as-veteran-wr-returns-to-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/321858\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers trading Adam Thielen to Vikings as veteran WR returns to Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thielen will once again take the field with standout <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/justin-jefferson\/\" title=\"Justin Jefferson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Jefferson<\/a> after the two played three seasons together. Jefferson has been dealing with a hamstring injury, though, and Vikings No. 2 wideout <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/jordan-addison\/\" title=\"Jordan Addison\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Addison<\/a> is <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/nfl-suspends-vikings-wr-jordan-addison-three-games\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended<\/a> for season&#8217;s first three games. Minnesota also <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/vikings-wr-rondale-moore-suffered-season-ending-knee-injury-in-preseason-opener\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lost<\/a> receiver <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/rondale-moore\/\" title=\"Rondale Moore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rondale Moore<\/a> for the season, and <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/jalen-nailor\/\" title=\"Jalen Nailor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jalen Nailor<\/a> is dealing with a hand injury. Thus, adding a proven talent like Thielen became a priority for the Vikings, who are heading into their first season with 2024 first-round pick <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/j-j-mccarthy\/\" title=\"J.J. McCarthy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">J.J. McCarthy<\/a> as starting quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>Thielen&#8217;s familiarity with O&#8217;Connell&#8217;s offense and his experience shepherding a young QB made him a stellar fit for the job. He&#8217;s coming off two seasons as one of <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/bryce-young\/\" title=\"Bryce Young\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bryce Young<\/a>&#8216;s top targets for Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>For the Panthers, it&#8217;s clear they&#8217;re confident with the young receiving corps they have, led by 2025 first-round pick <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/tetairoa-mcmillan\/\" title=\"Tetairoa McMillan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tetairoa McMillan<\/a> and 2024 first-rounder <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/xavier-legette\/\" title=\"Xavier Legette\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xavier Legette<\/a>, along with 2025 sixth-rounder <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/jimmy-horn-jr\/\" title=\"Jimmy Horn Jr.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jimmy Horn Jr.<\/a> and second-year player <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/jalen-coker\/\" title=\"Jalen Coker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jalen Coker<\/a>. <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/hunter-renfrow\/\" title=\"Hunter Renfrow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hunter Renfrow<\/a>, who was released Tuesday as part of Carolina&#8217;s cutdown to its initial 53-man roster, could return now that Thielen is headed elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Of some question would be how this affects Young.<\/p>\n<p>Young seemingly had built a solid rapport with Thielen over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Thielen was the Panthers&#8217; leading receiver in 2023 with 103 catches and 1,014 yards, standing as one of the few highlights in a 2-15 season that saw Young struggle mightily.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Thielen was limited to 10 games as he dealt with a hamstring injury but still led Carolina with 615 receiving yards and five TDs.<\/p>\n<p>Young and the Panthers will move on without their most veteran wide receiver, as Thielen is on his way back to the Twin Cities for what might be one last run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thielen will once again take the field with standout Justin Jefferson after the two played three seasons together.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4128,1227,260,7,259,88,6,609,59589],"class_list":{"0":"post-321858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-adam-thielen","9":"tag-around-the-nfl","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-minnesota-vikings","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-no-minute","16":"tag-trade-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115101161821876107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321858","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=321858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}