Hot Sauce Guy
Footballguy
I doubt Thielen is benched after week 3.
More likely he’s their WR3 all season or until Father Time catches up with him physically. They didn’t pay a future 4th to bench him.
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WR Adam Thielen, PIT (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter grateful zed
- Start date
More likely he’s their WR3 all season or until Father Time catches up with him physically. They didn’t pay a future 4th to bench him.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Local press has been making it sound like the coaches are in love with the WR room, but I tend to agree.
Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Took Hurts at 4.05 the other night and waited forever to take my QB2
25 yr local league
Got JJ in 14th round, won't have to start him very often but I hope he takes off and at the least I have some trade bait
By Wk.3 JJ McCarthy is going to realize that Thielen has already become his very trusted scecurity blanket. Thielen is going to have a better year in Minny than he would have had with the Panthers.
No way of knowing for positives but thatsa whata I thinka.
No way of knowing for positives but thatsa whata I thinka.
King of the Jungle
Footballguy
I was leaning against until this signing, the plate is really set for him.
rockaction
Footballguy
Have always really dug this guy. Good for him and I sincerely hope this works out the way he envisions it.
I feel like he'd be inactive most games.
rockaction
Footballguy
I wrote that because he seems like a good guy who wanted to go back home, but didn’t know they were going to lose quite so often and that he’d be their fourth or fifth wideout. I had no idea McCarthy and the QB situation would be like this, but I sorta knew that he’d have a tough time getting what he wanted in terms of playing time when it came down to it. The only team I can think of that is contending and has a need for a quick-hit intermediate guy is Pittsburgh. I’d never put Howie Roseman or McVay or even Tamps or Dallas or Detroit
He might have a suitor in the end
I said above, I was excited for his move to Minnesota.
But this feels like a weak sauce from Thielen. Your old team takes a chance on you as a washed-up wide receiver.
Quarterback play doesn't turn out to be expected, so now you want to bail for a contender?
But this feels like a weak sauce from Thielen. Your old team takes a chance on you as a washed-up wide receiver.
Quarterback play doesn't turn out to be expected, so now you want to bail for a contender?
VikingFrog
Footballguy
I wouldn’t care as much if we didn’t give up picks for him. Which is our own stupidity.
I get why they did it to cover for Addison early on, but we see how that worked out.
Yeah, unless there is something we don't know his actions really surprise me and not in a good way, especially being a hometown guy.
JohnnyU
Footballguy
He's washed up. Maybe it's time to do something else.
W.A.L.S.T.I.B.
Footballguy
Buffalo.....that WR group is not deep and they could use a vet who knows how to beat zone coverage come playoffs. They missed out trying to add depth at the trade deadline, they should take a chance.
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Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
They just brought in Brandin Cooks
BLOCKED_PUNT
Footballguy
I have very little issue with a guy at the tail end of his career wanting to somewhere were he'd both get more playing time and could possibly compete for a championship/
We'll disagree there. I don't think you quit on your team no matter what point you're in with your career.
BLOCKED_PUNT
Footballguy
god you must hate college then.
Lansdowne
Footballguy
I'd argue the Vikings management quit on their own team the moment they let Darnold walk, handed the keys to McCarthy, and had only Wentz as reinforcement. I don't think any of us expected it to get this bad, but it was a risk. Thielen came in, tried to help the Vikes, and the season was beyond salvaging. I think as someone who has given 10 out of 12 seasons of his career to the team, he's earned the right to end his career on his terms. It's just unfortunate for him that he landed on the Steelers, who are no sure thing to make the playoffs themselves.
Lansdowne
Footballguy
This, too.
Not to me it did not.
Can't believe someone claimed him, wonder if he's happy about it?
SF and Jax made sense but he never made it that far in the waiver claim.
I think he'd have preferred either of those spots quite easily.
SF brought in 3 WR's for workouts yesterday and he knows the system. KOC is from that tree but before KOC he played several years under Kubiak who is of course a Shanahan disciple.
Jax if Parker Washington is out made total sense. Cohen from same tree as KOC.
Both those teams he'd have known the system, played in good to decent weather and had better shot of being in the playoffs. Kind of glad in that sense it did not work out for him.
He won't do the Steelers any good and vice versa. Misery meet misery.
I think he'd have preferred either of those spots quite easily.
SF brought in 3 WR's for workouts yesterday and he knows the system. KOC is from that tree but before KOC he played several years under Kubiak who is of course a Shanahan disciple.
Jax if Parker Washington is out made total sense. Cohen from same tree as KOC.
Both those teams he'd have known the system, played in good to decent weather and had better shot of being in the playoffs. Kind of glad in that sense it did not work out for him.
He won't do the Steelers any good and vice versa. Misery meet misery.
BLOCKED_PUNT
Footballguy
naw. At most, it was hubris but not an abnormal thought process for the Vikings to think that they have their guy. They gambled and lost, it happens. Lost $20 last time I went to the casino.
He's good buddies with Rodgers, to me, that answers both why it wasn't a surprise, and whether he's happy about it.
rockaction
Footballguy
Not everybody has time, or was aware, or even had the impetus, but it's like someone said it before it happened or something. Man, life moves fast and you have to hold on to knowledge because that **** is fleeting.
Thanks but not how I see any of it.
rockaction
Footballguy
Would you mind explaining?
Pittsburgh was the first place I thought of and it was immediate. If you're busy, that's cool, but I know Pittsburgh is your team and you tend to have a really good bead on these things.
FairWarning
Footballguy
Very good signing by Pitt.
rockaction
Footballguy
Two reasons he might do them a world of good if he didn't totally fall off between last year and this one.
First reason is that If they put him in the slot he's enough of a tactician to win quickly and Rodgers's aDOT is minuscule. His time to throw is or was among the quickest in the league in Pittsburgh, and they just lost their left tackle, so these are quick hitters. It is going to require the footwork and body positioning that Thielen has had his whole career.
Second reason is that Rodgers just complained about a lack of attention to routes called (to which he had called audibles) and route detail. Thielen will come in and get it, if not by the first game, then the second one. He's cooked compared to Nailor and Addison, who both run decently under 4.5 and who he was going to look dramatically inferior than when your QBs freelance or are too green to make anticipatory throws. He was of little use to scramblers and deep ball throwers like McCarthy and Wentz. Thielen's game matches Rodgers's comfort zone because even when compared to the young and speedy Austin and Wilson, his whole package fits Rodgers better. On intermediate routes, Thielen will run precise and deceptive patterns that win at the top of the route so Rodgers can make the anticipatory timing throws he remembers and likes.
Will this be a success? Watch for how quickly he picks things up and his athleticism. You'll know within two games.
eta* you'll get an inkling by the second week, it better be getting almost fully there by Week 16 and then 17 and 18 are where they're rolling if it all goes well.
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I did a few posts up
No history together with Rodgers, no roots in the Arthur Smith tree. Don’t care how experienced you are, there are 5 weeks left in the season and knowing the system and familiarity with the QB are essential to fill the role you describe and he comes up empty in both.
He’s washed and is just a progress stopper on this team. This move does no one in any good.
rockaction
Footballguy
Welp, I could write pages about this but I'll have to leave it unspoken. I agree with you regarding the bolded premise. That said, we're looking at a team who will likely be playing very important games Weeks 17 and 18, and according to the quarterback (and you had to know that this type of quarterback control over personnel would be listened to as part of the arrangement and that this type of stuff was a distinct possibility when you advocated for him as a solution) they're not progressing. And more importantly, QB and coach feel the urgency and don't think it will be enough for the season's crunch time. Given his press conference, the receivers are actually regressing, apparently. Ben Solak did a Twitter video about Rodgers's audlbles and DK and Jonnu bricking the calls.
So here we have Thielen, who will likely (if Carolina is indicative) come in and get right with Aaron and the two older guys will try and make it right.
They probably won't. I can see why you doubt it. But Thielen isn't fully washed and can fit exactly what PIT and Rodgers want. Whether that kind of thing wins Pittsburgh games is another matter. I personally have a bunch of posts on this board and Twitter that Pittsburgh really messed up when they signed Rodgers and that they were never very good; Rodgers was a band-aid on a gushing wound. I think now that they've gone this route, Thielen doesn't just make sense, he's almost a godsend because they are dying. Thielen and a ton of luck and a turnaround might get Pittsburgh into the playoffs; without him, they were, to me, assuredly a sinking ship. This is a patch on the boat.
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Agreed. I think one can make the case O'Connell read his press clippings a little too much, and he was indeed the ultimate QB whisperer and could turn any quarterback into a good to great player.
As @BLOCKED_PUNT Said, that's more hubris. Which feels very different from quitting on your team.
rockaction
Footballguy
What if they essentially turned you into a cheerleader/mentor?
I know what you're saying, but an athlete's shelf life is pretty short and there's no ring anywhere near Thielen's finger. No Super Bowl week. Not even a shot. I'm not going to tell a guy about the spiritual, ethical, or moral considerations of sticking with your team when he's just standing on the sidelines every week and tuning into the main program's storyline which has nothing to do with success, but is about whether J.J. can make it in the big city after all. I'm not saying a thing to that guy. I get the other position and would respect him more if he stayed because that is just what we do; but I can't help but think there's a very deep part of me nodding at Thielen right now in assent.
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