Adam Thielen’s Super Bowl-winning comments from a few months ago goes viral after Panthers’ 9th loss of the season

9 games into the 2023 season Adam Thielen is feeling the heat in Carolina.

Adam Thielen’s Super Bowl-winning comments from a few months ago goes viral after Panthers’ 9th loss of the season

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Adam Thielen (Image via IMAGO)

Did Adam Thielen make a mistake by moving to the Carolina Panthers? Well, no one would have pointed a finger at the veteran wide receiver for a change of scenery if the season hadn’t started yet. After spending nine years with the Minnesota Vikings, Thielen decided it was time to head southeast.

The Panthers are in a rebuilding phase since Cam Newton left the franchise. They made a slight improvement last year, finishing second in the NFC South. But it was still a negative record campaign, with 7 wins from 17. So general manager Scott Fitterer concluded that he would go all out for the 2023 season.

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33-year-old Thielen had a proven pedigree in the NFL. Even though he was on the wrong side of 30 and losing a bit of pace, the Panthers still chose to take a shot. They traded their best receiver, D.J. Moore, who had 888 yards, to the Bears. This freed up enough cap space to give Thielen a three-year, $25 million contract.

But here’s the deal: he wasn’t even planning to move to Carolina in the first place. His goal was to join a franchise that would fight for the Super Bowl. However, a short chat with Fitterer changed his mind.

“Honestly, I wasn’t really planning on going to the Panthers,” Adam Thielen revealed on The Pat McAfee Show back in March. 

I went on a visit there just to hear them out. I wanted to go somewhere where I had an opportunity to win a Super Bowl. [But] when I sat down with the GM and coaching staff, there is a real chance to win a Super Bowl [with Panthers].

How has Adam Thielen’s time at the Carolina Panthers been panning out so far?

Panthers made the most of the 2023 NFL Draft by signing Alabama graduate Bryce Young as the No. 1 overall pick. Not only that, but it reinforced a few key areas by adding tight end Hayden Hurst and safety Vonn Bell.

Adam Thielen’s Super Bowl-winning comments from a few months ago goes viral after Panthers’ 9th loss of the season
Adam Thielen in the Miami Dolphins game (Image via Sports Illustrated)

But the biggest claim from free agency was onboarding Miles Sanders. The 26-year-old was fresh from playing in the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in February, and they gave him a four-year, $25.4 million contract.

The Panthers were slowly building from the bottom by giving Adam Thielen all the reasons that they were serious contenders. He settled on a long deal because he wasn’t interested in a “one-year kind of gap filler.”

Unfortunately, the 2023 NFL season has been anything but a Super Bowl-chasing season. The Bryce Young gamble so far hasn’t worked, and Sanders looks to be a shadow of his 2022 self, in which he had more than 1200 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. This season, he has only 224 yards from 71 carries.

Young seems to be struggling in almost every game. The 22-year-old is currently second in quarterback rating with a meager 33.1 while completing 1560 passing yards, 8 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions.

As for Adam Thielen, even though the service has been limited, he has caught 68 passes for 652 yards and scored four touchdowns in nine games. According to NBC Sports, he is on course for 128 catches in 17 games. That’s by far the most in his decade-long NFL career. But in retrospect, the 2023 season will go down as a failure because the Panthers are 1-8.

Here’s what he had to say after losing 16-13 to the Chicago Bears on Thursday night: 

We’re just not hitting on all cylinders right now. We’re not hitting on any cylinders. Everyone’s just embarrassed, [putting up] six points on offense. It's like we did not do anything.

Thielen had six receptions yesterday for 42 yards. He could have easily had more. The situation may yet get even worse for Carolina, as a hungry Dallas Cowboys side is coming to play at Bank of America Stadium next.

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