The Vikings’ Trade Might Not Have Worked Out After All
About a month ago, the Vikings panicked and traded for their old friend Adam Thielen, which made sense at the time because Jordan Addison was scheduled to sit out the first three games of the season, and Jalen Nailor’s season start was in jeopardy due to a hand injury.
The Vikings’ Trade Might Not Have Worked Out After All
Ultimately, Nailor was good to go (and played quite well), while the team ranked 32nd in pass attempts. It just wasn’t necessary to have a three-headed monster at the receiver position.
Thielen’s numbers show two catches for 26 yards in three games. He also dropped a couple of balls thrown his way, and it’s fair to wonder whether the Vikings could’ve just used Lucky Jackson or Jeshaun Jones rather than shipping some draft capital Carolina’s way.
Of course, he could just turn it on now and become a key element of Minnesota’s passing attack. However, he was acquired to replace Addison for three games, and those games are now in the rearview mirror. Addison will return on Sunday, when the Vikings face the Steelers in Dublin, Ireland.
Thielen is on pace to register a 147-yard season, which would be the numbers of a WR4 or WR5, not a WR2 or WR3. Nailor has fairly outplayed him, looking way more explosive. Thielen wasn’t hired to be an explosive receiver, though, but a reliable option in the middle of the field, who catches what’s thrown his way. Through three games, he hasn’t done that, and his age of 35 might have finally caught up to him.
What he has done is block well, something he has always been good at.
Thielen spoke to KFAN last week and mentioned the first few weeks back in Minnesota: “I think at the end of the day, regardless of who was at quarterback, we’re learning as an offense, as a team, as the play-callers — I think everyone’s learning what we’re going to be. Even though you have your scheme, the first three, four, five weeks of the season you’re really just trying to figure out what you do well, what we can lean on, what we’re going to do when it’s those really ‘weighty’ downs.”
“Once you get four, five, six weeks into the season, I think that’s really when you really start to settle in as an offense and figure, ‘OK, this is our identity. You have an idea of what you want that identity to look like, but it kind of shows itself over those five, six weeks.”
GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah gave up a 2026 fifth-rounder and a 2027 fourth-rounder and received Adam Thielen, a 2027 fifth-rounder, and a conditional 2026 seventh-rounder. If Thielen misses too much time, the seventh-rounder would become a sixth.
With Addison back and Nailor outperforming Thielen, there’s a world in which Thielen drifts into irrelevance, becomes the WR4, and his numbers are just doomed for this year, barring injuries to teammates. Then, it’s fair to ask the front office some questions.
All of that aside, it’s still worth mentioning that the Vikings ultimately used a day-three pick to bring a franchise legend back to the Twin Cities, and how mad can one really be about that?
Catching a handful of passes overseas could throw a wrench in that debate.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.