The one preseason move every Minnesota Vikings fan wanted has suddenly morphed into a puzzling situation.
Minnesota entered Sunday morning’s game against the Cleveland Browns in London thin at wide receiver; we just didn’t know it until after kickoff.
Jordan Addison mysteriously never saw an offensive snap in the game until the second quarter, and head coach Kevin O’Connell revealed after the game that Addison was benched for missing a team walkthrough earlier in the week.
The Vikings opened the game with Justin Jefferson and Jalen Nailor in two-wide sets, and wound up getting their only points of the opening quarter on a Cam Akers halfback pass to tight end Josh Oliver.
One player that noticeably wasn’t involved early during Addison’s absence — or much at all in the Vikings' 21-17 win, for that matter — was Adam Thielen. For a familiar, veteran player that Minnesota targeted and spent draft capital to acquire prior to the start of the season, his role appears to be dissipating by the week.
Minnesota Vikings fans are officially miffed over WR Adam Thielen’s lack of involvement
The Vikings have had plenty of experience playing without Addison this season, as he missed the first three games of the 2025 regular season because of a suspension by the league.
That’s precisely why Minnesota went and got Thielen in a trade with the Carolina Panthers on Aug. 27. That’s what Vikings fans thought, at least.
Through five games, Thielen hasn’t had many chances to make hay on his Minnesota return. Over the past two weeks, his snap counts have plummeted from 38.3 per game to 13.0, per Pro Football Focus.
Thielen played a season-low 12 snaps in the Vikings’ Week 4 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin, a game that coincided with Addison’s return. More surprising was the Browns game this week; with Addison on the bench and used sparingly in the first half, Thielen still only saw 14 total snaps.
The 35-year-old veteran was extremely productive over his two seasons in Carolina, topping 1,000 receiving yards in 2023; he battled a hamstring issue throughout 2024, but still caught five touchdowns and averaged 12.8 yards per reception, his highest total since 2019.
At this point, it’s fair to wonder if Thielen has enough left in the tank to make a significant impact for the Vikings this season. He went catchless for the third time in five games on Sunday, and enters the bye week with just four receptions on eight targets for 37 yards.
It’s worth noting that this first month-plus of the season hasn’t gone how Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings drew it up.
They’ve been forced to insert journeyman veteran Carson Wentz as their starting quarterback. In the Browns game alone, they were down three starting offensive linemen and had to move reserve guard Blake Brandel to center.
Thielen could simply be caught up in some awkward circumstance. He hasn’t even been back with Minnesota for 40 days.
With that said, we could be staring at a major front-office whiff here, after the Vikings sent the Panthers a 2026 fifth-round pick and 2027 fourth-rounder in exchange for Thielen, a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick, and a 2027 fifth-rounder at the end of August. So far, the much-anticipated move has not aged well.