September 2, 2025 • 21 mins
Tim discusses Adam Thielen's return to the Minnesota Vikings after a contract revision that saw him forfeit a significant portion of his salary. The conversation delves into Thielen's motivations for returning home, the implications of his pay cut, and the potential for regret if the Vikings do not perform well. Additionally, the episode touches on Max Brosmer's journey as a third-string quarterback and his determination to prove himself in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Adam Thielen really wanted to come home and play for
the Vikings or is there something else happening here? All
of that on today's podcast, This is brought to you
by five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. Call five Star
Bath Solutions of Minneapolis for a bathroom transformation. The recent
(00:26):
news is that Vikings receiver Adam Thielen has agreed to
terms on a contract revision, reducing his salary by two
million dollars and removing four million dollars in incentives per sources.
(00:54):
So because Adam Thelen wanted to be rated to the Vikings,
he is forfeiting potentially six million dollars of money by
agreeing to this trade. And the story being written is
(01:21):
that Adam Thlen just wanted to play for his home team,
and that is a partial truth. The complete truth is
that Adam Thielen's home team offered an opportunity to win
(01:46):
a Super Bowl and it just happened to be for
his home team. If the Vikings were not entering a
championship window of opportunity, Adam Thielen would have no desire
to return to his home state and finish off his career.
(02:10):
In the mind of Adam Thielen. This is about an
opportunity to join a team entering their Super Bowl window
and playing for your home team is also kind of fun.
It is no secret that Adam Thielen and his wife
(02:35):
wanted to return to Minnesota, and the Carolina Panthers general
manager basically said that. He said, I'm not going to
stand in the way of Adam Thielen returning to Minnesota
and finishing off his career there. But can we call
(02:59):
this what it is? If the Vikings were not entering
their Super Bowl window, Adam Thielen would have no interest
in potentially forfeiting six million dollars in his contract with
(03:22):
his reduction in his salary and removing four million dollars
in incentives. Let me just say it like this. If
the Panthers were entering their Super Bowl window and the
Vikings were currently in the Panthers' predicament, this trade would
(03:48):
not have gone down. But the beautiful thing about this
trade is that it offers Adam Thielen and his family
everything they are hoping for. And when I say hoping for,
(04:08):
I mean hoping for. They get to return to their
home state, which they love, which they have a heart
for and they get to play for their favorite team.
They took a pay cut, but he's earned so much
(04:30):
money throughout his career that reducing his salary by two
million isn't that big of a deal. But all of
this is in hope for playing for a winning team.
If the Vikings finish this season with an eight and
(04:51):
nine record a seven and ten record, Adam Thielen and
his family will look back on this trade and say,
I reduced my salary for this. I wanted a trade
(05:15):
out of Carolina for this, the exact same situation I
could have had in Carolina, But I reduced my salary
by basically six million dollars so that I could join
a championship team that wins seven freakin games? Are you
kidding me? Because this is how professional players think. They
(05:46):
want an opportunity to win very fair. They also want
to make a lot of money, very fair. And when
a professional player takes a pay cut to join a team,
(06:10):
it's not because they loved that team with all their heart.
It's because they want an opportunity to win a championship,
which is also very fair. And my fear is that
Adam Feelen could look back on this trade with regret.
(06:36):
If the Vikings suck all kinds of ass he could
look back on this trade and say, I took a
pay cut for this. This is what I came home
for a team that won seven games. When Carolina won
(06:58):
seven games, and I could have kept my entire salary
plus when Addison and Naylor return at one hundred percent,
Felan's role within the Vikings offense is going to naturally
(07:22):
take a back seat. So Thelan's role is going to
be diminished, not to nothing, but to something, and he's
taking a pay cut, removing possibly six million dollars from
his contract. He is doing this because he wants to
(07:46):
win a title. Now Anathelan's first contract in the NFL.
He is an undrafted free agent out of man Cato State,
a three year, one million, four hundred and eighty five
(08:08):
thousand dollars contract with an average salary of four hundred
and ninety five thousand. His contract this season, Feeling will
earn a base salary of four million, two hundred and
fifty thousand. Now, there is a big difference between those
two contracts. One is a contract winner entering the league
(08:32):
as an undrafted free agent just trying to make the team,
and the other is a veteran basically taking a close
to minimum deal one year, four million dollars for a
player that's been in the league for thirteen seasons. And
(08:59):
we all end this world getting our ass wiped as
a baby, and most of us leave this world getting
our asses wiped as an adult. And that's how I
would describe Adam Thielen's contract situation throughout his NFL career.
(09:22):
He entered the NFL with a salary of four hundred
and ninety five thousand. In the middle of his career
and the prime of his career, he is making boatloads
of money, just like we all hope to during the
prime of our life. And now he's finishing his career
(09:44):
with a salary of about four million dollars, which hasn't
been this low since his first few years in the NFL.
When Adam Thielen left for Carolina, he is on record
saying that he believes that the Panthers give him his
(10:08):
best chance at winning a Super Bowl. Adam feeling is
returning to his great state of Minnesota because he wants
to win a ring and he wants to finish off
(10:30):
his career riding off into the sunset and hoisting a
Lombardi Trophy. Adam Thielen, when he signed with the Panthers
years ago, says, Honestly, I wasn't really planning on going
to the Panthers. I went on a visit there just
to see, just to hear them out, because I wanted
(10:53):
to go somewhere where I had an opportunity to win
a Super Bowl. And when I went there, I sat
down with coach Frank Reich, I sat down with the
general manager, and sat down with all of the coaching staff,
and I felt like Carolina was the place to go.
That I feel like there's a real chance to win
(11:13):
a Super Bowl, and that gets me so excited. This
was a story written on March twenty fourth, twenty twenty three,
and the same situation applies to the Vikings. Yes, he
(11:34):
gets to come home and play for his hometown team,
but the bigger story is he wants a chance to
win a Super Bowl. He has had a super Bowl
mindset for the last three to four years of his career.
(11:57):
He joined Carolina at a opportunity to win a super Bowl,
which is laughable, but that's what he said, and maybe
he wouldn't have taken a pay cut for just any team.
It was his hometown team, but his hometown team also
(12:18):
offers an opportunity to win a super Bowl. Meaning he
wouldn't have done this just for any organization, but he's
doing it for an opportunity to win, and that's the
bigger story. It's a cool story about a player coming
home and I'm excited. I think Adam Thielen is needed,
(12:44):
but I do fear that he could harnessed a little
bitterness in his heart at the end of the season
if the Vikings don't live up to the expectation that
they have inside that organization and that feeling has joining
(13:06):
the team, and that is contending for a super Bowl,
because let's face it, they have a super Bowl roster,
and they invested in their roster to win games in
the regular season and to contend for a super Bowl.
(13:27):
And we don't want to make any rush judgments per se,
but we'll find out in about six days if the
Vikings are going to be legitimate contenders for a super
(13:51):
Bowl this season, because it doesn't take long to figure
it out. It doesn't take weeks to understand if the
Vikings are going to be a legitimate team or not.
Check out five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis for all
your bathroom needs. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis transformed
(14:15):
our bathroom in forty eight hours, and that's their promise
to you as well. Our bathroom got a new floor,
vanity countertops, we went from a single to a double sink,
new mirror, are showers around, had molding it and five
(14:35):
Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis changed that. They got rid
of it. We didn't have to outsource it and all
of this was done in forty eight hours. Free consultations
are available and they have affordable payment plans, beautiful solutions,
affordable transformations. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. There's another
(15:00):
story real quick. The Purple Persuasion shared it on his account.
That was some reporters at the State Fear of the
Star Tribune. Andrew km Or was speaking with Ben Gesling
and they're talking about the Vikings QB room and that
(15:23):
situation and says this, well, with J. J. McCarthy, I
think they're telling Max Brosman to back off because they
need more time. With J. J. McCarthy, Max said, like,
I have to understand I'm not the priority. So this
(15:47):
has been a situation for Brosmer where he's had to
learn that he's not the priority, because up until this
point he's been the priority at Minnesota, at the college
before Minnesota, Ben the guy, and it's a transition going
from QB one to QB three, and Brosmer, by all understanding,
(16:13):
has made it clear that he wants to work his
tailoff and he will be at the Vikings facility just
as long as JJ McCarthy is, and the coaches have
been like, dude, we love your work ethic, but we
(16:36):
don't have time for you because you are not the priority.
Our jobs don't hinge on our quarterback three playing well.
And to Beck's Brosmer, I would say that this is
your welcome to the NFL moment. He's not going to
(16:58):
play during his rookie season. He made the team, and
he has showed me some skills in preseason and in
training camp that makes me think he could be a
legitimate NFL starter and player. But this is Max Brosemer's
(17:20):
welcome to the NFL moment when he first found out
that hey, your role is the backup to the backup
right now, and our coaches are not working hard to
(17:41):
make sure the backup to the backup is going to
be as prepared as possible. So oftentimes you see backup
quarterbacks in the league. You see this every year. Oh
how did you stay ready when you out this opportunity,
opportunity to play or start when our quarterback when injured
(18:05):
was injured. I'm just always staying ready. I always looking
at film. They all said the same thing, even if
it's not true. And what that tells me is that
they're looking at film, staying ready by themselves. Sure they're
within the quarterback room and they're in their quarterback meetings,
but they are not the focus, nor should they be,
(18:26):
because McCarthy is QB one and by all means will
remain QB one as long as he doesn't get injured.
So Brosmer and his work ethic, although very inspiring, it
(18:47):
is unfortunately being looked over, not really appreciated to the
fact that it would be if he was the starting
quarterback on the Vikings. But what Brosmer is doing is
(19:08):
very respectable because he understands where he's at QB three,
but he is doing everything in his power to make
sure that although he's QB three, he is doing his
(19:28):
best job at getting a leg up over the competition,
because this isn't a sprint, this is a marathon, and
when Brosmer's opportunity comes, he will be as prepared as anybody,
(19:50):
if not more prepared than everybody else. So that's the
mindset of Brosmer right now. It's a game of inches,
and he is clawing and climbing through every inch right now,
doing everything in his power to get a leg up
(20:12):
over the competition. And that's cool because as an underdog,
as someone that isn't going to be handed opportunities as
much as a first round pick would be, you've got
to do everything in your power to make sure that
you have a competitive advantage in every single category that
(20:39):
makes a quarterback play. And that's what Brosmer is doing.
Hulkland Farms Beef nine five two four four one, steaks, chuck, roast, hamburger,
beef ribs and more offer about four dollars a pound.
Hulkland Farms Beef rotationally gray grass fed beef. Hoakland Farms
(21:03):
Beef nine five two four nine one one five four one.
Tell Jared Tim sent you and they'll give you a
twenty percent off your first order. Hoakland Farms beef nine
five two four nine one one five four one. Pick
up your phone, call Jared at nine five two four
nine one one five four one. Hit that subscribe button.
This one's The Rind with Tim Griddley. I hope you
(21:25):
all have a wonderful day.
Adam Thielen really wanted to come home and play for
the Vikings or is there something else happening here? All
of that on today's podcast, This is brought to you
by five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. Call five Star
Bath Solutions of Minneapolis for a bathroom transformation. The recent
(00:26):
news is that Vikings receiver Adam Thielen has agreed to
terms on a contract revision, reducing his salary by two
million dollars and removing four million dollars in incentives per sources.
(00:54):
So because Adam Thelen wanted to be rated to the Vikings,
he is forfeiting potentially six million dollars of money by
agreeing to this trade. And the story being written is
(01:21):
that Adam Thlen just wanted to play for his home team,
and that is a partial truth. The complete truth is
that Adam Thielen's home team offered an opportunity to win
(01:46):
a Super Bowl and it just happened to be for
his home team. If the Vikings were not entering a
championship window of opportunity, Adam Thielen would have no desire
to return to his home state and finish off his career.
(02:10):
In the mind of Adam Thielen. This is about an
opportunity to join a team entering their Super Bowl window
and playing for your home team is also kind of fun.
It is no secret that Adam Thielen and his wife
(02:35):
wanted to return to Minnesota, and the Carolina Panthers general
manager basically said that. He said, I'm not going to
stand in the way of Adam Thielen returning to Minnesota
and finishing off his career there. But can we call
(02:59):
this what it is? If the Vikings were not entering
their Super Bowl window, Adam Thielen would have no interest
in potentially forfeiting six million dollars in his contract with
(03:22):
his reduction in his salary and removing four million dollars
in incentives. Let me just say it like this. If
the Panthers were entering their Super Bowl window and the
Vikings were currently in the Panthers' predicament, this trade would
(03:48):
not have gone down. But the beautiful thing about this
trade is that it offers Adam Thielen and his family
everything they are hoping for. And when I say hoping for,
(04:08):
I mean hoping for. They get to return to their
home state, which they love, which they have a heart
for and they get to play for their favorite team.
They took a pay cut, but he's earned so much
(04:30):
money throughout his career that reducing his salary by two
million isn't that big of a deal. But all of
this is in hope for playing for a winning team.
If the Vikings finish this season with an eight and
(04:51):
nine record a seven and ten record, Adam Thielen and
his family will look back on this trade and say,
I reduced my salary for this. I wanted a trade
(05:15):
out of Carolina for this, the exact same situation I
could have had in Carolina, But I reduced my salary
by basically six million dollars so that I could join
a championship team that wins seven freakin games? Are you
kidding me? Because this is how professional players think. They
(05:46):
want an opportunity to win very fair. They also want
to make a lot of money, very fair. And when
a professional player takes a pay cut to join a team,
(06:10):
it's not because they loved that team with all their heart.
It's because they want an opportunity to win a championship,
which is also very fair. And my fear is that
Adam Feelen could look back on this trade with regret.
(06:36):
If the Vikings suck all kinds of ass he could
look back on this trade and say, I took a
pay cut for this. This is what I came home
for a team that won seven games. When Carolina won
(06:58):
seven games, and I could have kept my entire salary
plus when Addison and Naylor return at one hundred percent,
Felan's role within the Vikings offense is going to naturally
(07:22):
take a back seat. So Thelan's role is going to
be diminished, not to nothing, but to something, and he's
taking a pay cut, removing possibly six million dollars from
his contract. He is doing this because he wants to
(07:46):
win a title. Now Anathelan's first contract in the NFL.
He is an undrafted free agent out of man Cato State,
a three year, one million, four hundred and eighty five
(08:08):
thousand dollars contract with an average salary of four hundred
and ninety five thousand. His contract this season, Feeling will
earn a base salary of four million, two hundred and
fifty thousand. Now, there is a big difference between those
two contracts. One is a contract winner entering the league
(08:32):
as an undrafted free agent just trying to make the team,
and the other is a veteran basically taking a close
to minimum deal one year, four million dollars for a
player that's been in the league for thirteen seasons. And
(08:59):
we all end this world getting our ass wiped as
a baby, and most of us leave this world getting
our asses wiped as an adult. And that's how I
would describe Adam Thielen's contract situation throughout his NFL career.
(09:22):
He entered the NFL with a salary of four hundred
and ninety five thousand. In the middle of his career
and the prime of his career, he is making boatloads
of money, just like we all hope to during the
prime of our life. And now he's finishing his career
(09:44):
with a salary of about four million dollars, which hasn't
been this low since his first few years in the NFL.
When Adam Thielen left for Carolina, he is on record
saying that he believes that the Panthers give him his
(10:08):
best chance at winning a Super Bowl. Adam feeling is
returning to his great state of Minnesota because he wants
to win a ring and he wants to finish off
(10:30):
his career riding off into the sunset and hoisting a
Lombardi Trophy. Adam Thielen, when he signed with the Panthers
years ago, says, Honestly, I wasn't really planning on going
to the Panthers. I went on a visit there just
to see, just to hear them out, because I wanted
(10:53):
to go somewhere where I had an opportunity to win
a Super Bowl. And when I went there, I sat
down with coach Frank Reich, I sat down with the
general manager, and sat down with all of the coaching staff,
and I felt like Carolina was the place to go.
That I feel like there's a real chance to win
(11:13):
a Super Bowl, and that gets me so excited. This
was a story written on March twenty fourth, twenty twenty three,
and the same situation applies to the Vikings. Yes, he
(11:34):
gets to come home and play for his hometown team,
but the bigger story is he wants a chance to
win a Super Bowl. He has had a super Bowl
mindset for the last three to four years of his career.
(11:57):
He joined Carolina at a opportunity to win a super Bowl,
which is laughable, but that's what he said, and maybe
he wouldn't have taken a pay cut for just any team.
It was his hometown team, but his hometown team also
(12:18):
offers an opportunity to win a super Bowl. Meaning he
wouldn't have done this just for any organization, but he's
doing it for an opportunity to win, and that's the
bigger story. It's a cool story about a player coming
home and I'm excited. I think Adam Thielen is needed,
(12:44):
but I do fear that he could harnessed a little
bitterness in his heart at the end of the season
if the Vikings don't live up to the expectation that
they have inside that organization and that feeling has joining
(13:06):
the team, and that is contending for a super Bowl,
because let's face it, they have a super Bowl roster,
and they invested in their roster to win games in
the regular season and to contend for a super Bowl.
(13:27):
And we don't want to make any rush judgments per se,
but we'll find out in about six days if the
Vikings are going to be legitimate contenders for a super
(13:51):
Bowl this season, because it doesn't take long to figure
it out. It doesn't take weeks to understand if the
Vikings are going to be a legitimate team or not.
Check out five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis for all
your bathroom needs. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis transformed
(14:15):
our bathroom in forty eight hours, and that's their promise
to you as well. Our bathroom got a new floor,
vanity countertops, we went from a single to a double sink,
new mirror, are showers around, had molding it and five
(14:35):
Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis changed that. They got rid
of it. We didn't have to outsource it and all
of this was done in forty eight hours. Free consultations
are available and they have affordable payment plans, beautiful solutions,
affordable transformations. Five Star Bath Solutions of Minneapolis. There's another
(15:00):
story real quick. The Purple Persuasion shared it on his account.
That was some reporters at the State Fear of the
Star Tribune. Andrew km Or was speaking with Ben Gesling
and they're talking about the Vikings QB room and that
(15:23):
situation and says this, well, with J. J. McCarthy, I
think they're telling Max Brosman to back off because they
need more time. With J. J. McCarthy, Max said, like,
I have to understand I'm not the priority. So this
(15:47):
has been a situation for Brosmer where he's had to
learn that he's not the priority, because up until this
point he's been the priority at Minnesota, at the college
before Minnesota, Ben the guy, and it's a transition going
from QB one to QB three, and Brosmer, by all understanding,
(16:13):
has made it clear that he wants to work his
tailoff and he will be at the Vikings facility just
as long as JJ McCarthy is, and the coaches have
been like, dude, we love your work ethic, but we
(16:36):
don't have time for you because you are not the priority.
Our jobs don't hinge on our quarterback three playing well.
And to Beck's Brosmer, I would say that this is
your welcome to the NFL moment. He's not going to
(16:58):
play during his rookie season. He made the team, and
he has showed me some skills in preseason and in
training camp that makes me think he could be a
legitimate NFL starter and player. But this is Max Brosemer's
(17:20):
welcome to the NFL moment when he first found out
that hey, your role is the backup to the backup
right now, and our coaches are not working hard to
(17:41):
make sure the backup to the backup is going to
be as prepared as possible. So oftentimes you see backup
quarterbacks in the league. You see this every year. Oh
how did you stay ready when you out this opportunity,
opportunity to play or start when our quarterback when injured
(18:05):
was injured. I'm just always staying ready. I always looking
at film. They all said the same thing, even if
it's not true. And what that tells me is that
they're looking at film, staying ready by themselves. Sure they're
within the quarterback room and they're in their quarterback meetings,
but they are not the focus, nor should they be,
(18:26):
because McCarthy is QB one and by all means will
remain QB one as long as he doesn't get injured.
So Brosmer and his work ethic, although very inspiring, it
(18:47):
is unfortunately being looked over, not really appreciated to the
fact that it would be if he was the starting
quarterback on the Vikings. But what Brosmer is doing is
(19:08):
very respectable because he understands where he's at QB three,
but he is doing everything in his power to make
sure that although he's QB three, he is doing his
(19:28):
best job at getting a leg up over the competition,
because this isn't a sprint, this is a marathon, and
when Brosmer's opportunity comes, he will be as prepared as anybody,
(19:50):
if not more prepared than everybody else. So that's the
mindset of Brosmer right now. It's a game of inches,
and he is clawing and climbing through every inch right now,
doing everything in his power to get a leg up
(20:12):
over the competition. And that's cool because as an underdog,
as someone that isn't going to be handed opportunities as
much as a first round pick would be, you've got
to do everything in your power to make sure that
you have a competitive advantage in every single category that
(20:39):
makes a quarterback play. And that's what Brosmer is doing.
Hulkland Farms Beef nine five two four four one, steaks, chuck, roast, hamburger,
beef ribs and more offer about four dollars a pound.
Hulkland Farms Beef rotationally gray grass fed beef. Hoakland Farms
(21:03):
Beef nine five two four nine one one five four one.
Tell Jared Tim sent you and they'll give you a
twenty percent off your first order. Hoakland Farms beef nine
five two four nine one one five four one. Pick
up your phone, call Jared at nine five two four
nine one one five four one. Hit that subscribe button.
This one's The Rind with Tim Griddley. I hope you
(21:25):
all have a wonderful day.
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