The Carolina Panthers may not win a game this season, and that is eating at former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen, who reached a boiling point on the sidelines of the Panthers’ Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Panthers offense struggled in the 26-3 home loss on September 15 where Thielen finished with just two catches for 20 yards on three targets. He was captured ripping his helmet off and yelling on the sidelines in frustration.
Adam Thielen heads the sidelines with visible frustration
Thielen addressed his meltdown after the game, admitting his emotions got the best of him.
“I think when you step in between those lines, you have to be a different type of player, you have to play with emotion. If you don’t, you’re not going to have success. At some point, it boils over, right? You try to be a leader, you try to be mature with how you handle yourself, but at some point it boils over,” Thielen said.
“When you put so much into this game, into game-planning, into how you practice, how you fight through some stuff, you just want to see progression, you want to see us moving forward as a team. So, yeah, boiled over frustration. I’m not making any excuses, I shouldn’t do that. But at the same time, when I step in those lines I kind of turn into a different person because I’ve learned through my career you have to be. You have to have that emotion. You have to have that kind of dog mentality, otherwise you’ll get eaten alive. I let it boil over, which, maturity-wise, I shouldn’t do that.”
#Panthers WR Adam Thielen on his sideline frustration:
“At some point it boils over.” pic.twitter.com/Rhm7FzCoVn— Jeremy Grandison (@JeremyGrandiso1) September 15, 2024
Vikings WR Adam Thielen Protects Panthers QB Bryce Young Amid Frustrations With Offense
GettyPanthers stars Adam Thielen and Bryce Young
After leaving the Vikings to sign a three-year, $25 million deal with the Panthers, Thielen made no excuses for his situation. He wants to compete for Super Bowls in Carolina.
Adam Thielen says he feels like the Carolina Panthers have a real shot at winning a Super Bowl and that Andy Dalton signing was a major reason why he chose them.
He hitched himself to a Panthers organization that drafted Bryce Young No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft. After going 2-15 last season in Young’s first year, the Panthers appear to be taking steps backward. They’ve lost their first two games of the season by a combined score of 73 to 13.
Despite the frustration, Theilen did not place blame on Young, instead calling the offense’s woes a “team issue.”
“I love Bryce to death, man. He works his butt off. He’s a great player. This is not a Bryce Young issue. This is a offensive team issue,” Thielen said. “We are all in this together. I know what football is, that’s why I love this game with everything I have, because it is the greatest team game. It’s not about an individual.”
Thielen’s praise of Young comes as no surprise as the 34-year-old is invested in helping younger players develop in the game.
He worked with Vikings rookie J.J. McCarthy in the offseason and gave only positives about the 21-year-old set to be the quarterback of the future in Minnesota.
Adam Thielen postgame on the Panthers offense: “I love Bryce to death, man. He works his butt off. He’s a great player. This is not a Bryce Young issue. This is an offensive team issue. We are all in this together. I know what football is, that’s why I love this game with…
Adam Thielen’s Praise of Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy Leaves Room for Reunion
GettyJ.J. McCarthy #9 of the Minnesota Vikings.
After a workout with McCarthy and Thielen went viral, Thielen made media rounds propping up the Vikings rookie quarterback.
From a July 1 appearance on KFAN’s #92Noon!:
He’s got all the tools, that’s for sure. He can sling it. He’s super accurate. We’re in shorts and some T-shirts out there. But, yeah, that you can see a lot just from accuracy timing and those kind of things when you’re running routes on air.
He’s a great kid. You don’t really realize that he’s 21 years old when you’re talking to him [or] when you’re hanging around him. He’s got a maturity about him that you can tell that goes beyond his age.
That’s step No. 1 as a quarterback, right? To have that maturity level, to have that kind of poise or kind of that aura around you that just feels like confidence and just a good, good person. So I’ve really enjoyed being around him for the little time that I’ve been able to be around him, and [I’m] excited to kind of follow his career.
WR Adam Thielen and #Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthy continue to the grind this offseason together 😤
🎥: @athielen19 / IG
Later in the summer, Minnesota Star Tribune beat reporter Ben Goessling didn’t discount the idea of Thielen returning to Minnesota considering his growing relationship with McCarthy.
“Adam Thielen is still under contract in Carolina, but he’s been working out with J.J. McCarthy. And if he ends up getting cut in Carolina, I guess I wouldn’t be stunned by that,” Goessling said July 20 on KFAN radio. “I mean, it certainly would make some sense for him to come back… And I think [the Vikings would] have some interest in that if that ever were to come up… I think the relationship is such that maybe if that would come up, that could be an option for him at some point.”
That was under the condition that Thielen was cut from Carolina, but if the Panthers do not turn things around, Thielen could force his way out with his ambitions of winning a Super Bowl not aligned in Carolina.
