According to Panthers general manager Dan Morgan, Adam Thielen was adamant that he wanted to be traded to the Vikings. That conviction from Thielen is partially why a deal got done to send the Minnesota native back to his home state and the franchise where he spent his first nine NFL seasons.
The Vikings, in need of a receiver who knows their offense, reportedly initiated talks with the Panthers, which gave Carolina some leverage. But when Morgan discussed the possibility with Thielen, the veteran wideout made it clear that it was something he wanted to happen. That was a factor the Panthers felt they had to consider.
“It’s kinda hard, when I sit Adam Thielen down in my office and he is just really wanting to go there and he’s pretty adamant that ‘this is what I want, this is where I want to go,’ I didn’t really want to stand in his way,” Morgan told Kyle Bailey of WFNZ radio in Charlotte. “It was something that he was really convicted about. He wanted to go and finish his career there. Obviously he’s from there, he has a house there, he has young kids. There’s a human side to it, too.”
Knowing that Thielen wanted to be a Viking and that the Panthers have some young wide receivers they’re excited about, Morgan was open to the possibility of a trade. But what he didn’t want to do was give Thielen away. A deal had to make sense for Carolina, too. The initial offer from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the Vikings, per The Athletic’s Joseph Person, was a sixth-round pick for Thielen and a seventh. That wasn’t good enough.
“But at the same time, in my mind, I knew that I had to do what was best for the Carolina Panthers,” Morgan said. “So I wasn’t gonna give him away. A few offers that they did send over, it would’ve been a giveaway. As I was back and forth, back and forth with Kwesi, their GM up there, myself, (Panthers execs) Brandt Tilis and Eric Eager, sitting in the room, going through all these scenarios — we must’ve went through 10 different trade scenarios that we felt would work for us, and where we would be at the advantage.”
The Panthers countered with an offer of a fifth-rounder and Thielen for a third-rounder, according to Person. Eventually, the two sides were able to agree to a deal that gave the Panthers a fourth-round value but didn’t involve the Vikings parting with a Day 2 pick. Minnesota sent a fifth-rounder in 2026 and a fourth-rounder in 2027 for Thielen, a 2027 fifth, and a conditional 2026 seventh-rounder.
That was enough to satisfy Morgan, who acknowledged that holding onto Thielen despite his desire to be in Minnesota could’ve theoretically led to some disdain on Adam’s part. On paper, it may look like a slight overpay for the Vikings, but there are plenty of reasons why the cost was worth it for Adofo-Mensah and company.
“At the end of the day, we sent him there, we agreed to it,” Morgan said. “Adam being so adamant to go there, it was just kinda hard for me to stand in his way. (To have) him be here, maybe he’d be disgruntled, maybe he’d be fine, but we would’ve had to find that out.”
Morgan’s comments stand in some degree of contrast with what Thielen told Twin Cities media on Thursday, which is that he wasn’t expecting a trade and was focused on his job in Carolina until the moment the deal went through. Ultimately, both things can probably be true. Thielen may have made it known that he wanted to go back to Minnesota, while also being aware it wasn’t guaranteed to happen. He’s a professional who presumably wouldn’t have created any issues with the Panthers if he hadn’t been traded.
But this was what he wanted, and Morgan understood that. So once they got the value they needed, the Panthers were happy to grant Thielen’s wish and send him back home.
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