Adam Thielen has not played his last down in the NFL quite yet. After mulling retirement, the Carolina Panthers receiver confirmed his plans to play in 2025. Thielen will be 35 at the start of the 2025 campaign.
“I had said after the season, like I just need two weeks to really think about it,” Thielen told the Panthers official team website. “And then once I make that decision I’m like, I’m going to do one more year. Then that’s my mindset, and here we go. I didn’t want to be wishy-washy, like maybe, maybe not.
“So whether it was a yes or a no, I just wanted to know so I can attack my offseason.”
Retirement was truly on the table for Thielen, who had his family together in Atlanta for the regular-season finale, acknowledging the possibility of it being the last time he’d step on an NFL field as a player. When asked if anyone realized how close he was to hanging it up, he answered, “No.”
“I don’t think anyone does other than my family,” he said. “To prove that, I mean my entire family came to my last game of the season last year because I kind of told them at that point this could be it. I was pretty exhausted, I think I’m to that point where I’m in the middle of the road like a a big part of me wants to keep playing and giving everything I got.
“And a big part of me is like I’m ready to move on and spend more time with my family and move on to the second career. But again, once I make that mindset of like, all right, I’m doing this, it’s all in.”
Thielen showed last season that he still has some tread left on his tires, registering 615 yards receiving and five touchdowns on 48 receptions over 10 games played. He was a particularly key outlet for second-year quarterback Bryce Young, who came on strong after re-establishing himself as Carolina’s starter.
In fact, Thielen acknowledges that Young’s emergence and how the team finished the 2024 season are key reasons for him coming back.
“I would say I would say that was 95% of the reason for wanting to play again,” he said. “Because when you’re part of something, I always said the reason I came to Carolina in the first place was I wanted to be part of building something. So if that wasn’t being built and I didn’t see that it was progressing and going in the right direction, it would have been a lot easier to be like, all right, I’m ready to move on and start the next part of my life.
“But when you start to see that progression, I would hate to be part of building and then not be a part of the next step. So hopefully things keep progressing, and I can be a part of the end of the building process.”
Thielen entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State and played his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings until 2023, when he joined the Panthers. So far, the 2017 Second Team All-Pro has 8,311 yards receiving and 64 touchdowns for his career on 685 catches.
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Author: Tyler Sullivan
February 6, 2025 | 6:30 pm
