BIOGRAPHY
Adam Thielen was born August 22, 1990 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. He is a wide receiver in the National Football League.
While many have coined Adam’s journey to the NFL as a Cinderella story, his path to success and reaching his full potential is the result of unswerving perseverance, determination and faith. Adam’s story began when he first witnessed greatness in his favorite Vikings players, Cris Carter and Randy Moss. Adam’s passion for the game growing up, matched with his ceaseless motivation to reach his fullest potential, earned him a spot on the Minnesota State-Mankato football team. Coming in as an underdog, Adam finished his collegiate career in 2012 at the top with 198 catches for 2,802 yards and 20 touchdowns in 46 games.
After going undrafted in the 2013 NFL Draft and the odds seemingly stacked against him, Adam kept his head down and trained rigorously to give NFL scouts a reason to turn their heads. With a proven track record for rejecting complacency and breaking through barriers, Adam was invited to two rookie camps, one with the Carolina Panthers and the other with the Minnesota Vikings.
Dedicated to his training at ETS Performance alongside Ryan Englebert, Adam attended the 2013 Minnesota Viking’s rookie tryout and evaluation session at Winter Park. Starting out in the third and lowest practice squad on the first day of camp, Adam earned a spot practicing with the first and second groups by the last day of camp. With the 90-man roster already set, Adam’s tryout performance prompted the Vikings to sign him as an undrafted free agent.
With his name stitched on the back of his home team’s jersey, Adam’s appetite to train and be the best continued to grow. Through diligent preparation and training, tenacious drive and a guiding faith, in 2017, Adam had arrived in the upper echelon of NFL wide receivers. He became the first Vikings wide receiver to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards since 2009, was selected for the 2017 Pro Bowl and named second-team All-Pro.
In 2018, Adam tied Calvin Johnson’s NFL record with eight consecutive games of 100+ receiving yards. Again, Adam made the Pro Bowl in 2018, and was ranked the #33 player in the league on the “NFL 100” list (voted on by his peers). Today, Adam has cemented himself as a Vikings legend. He is in the franchise’s top 15 players all time in: receptions, yards, and touchdowns. Adam’s legendary work ethic still remains, ever striving to land among those Viking greats he watched as a kid.
On March 19, 2023, Thielen signed a three-year contract with the Carolina Panthers.
