It’s almost been two years since the Minnesota Vikings made the decision to release veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen after he spent 10 seasons with the franchise. Now, with the Carolina Panthers, Thielen was recently at the center of a wild rumor that has him desiring to return to the Vikings to finish his NFL career in purple.

The rumor came courtesy of a listener to SKOR North’s “Purple Daily” who shared some details of an interaction they recently had with a person who claimed to have a close connection to Thielen. During Friday’s episode of “Purple Daily”, SKOR North’s Phil Mackey shared the reckless rumor that really isn’t too difficult to believe.

“From [a listener who shall remain anonymous], ‘Long story short, I was at the Xcel Energy Center for a [Minnesota Wild] game recently and a person, who shall go nameless, saw my Vikings hat and asked if I was a Vikings fan. I said, sure am. He went on to tell me he has a very close connection to Adam Thielen.

…He mentioned that he had talked to Thielen the other week and Thielen said he’s trying to get his way out of Carolina and come back to the Vikings to finish his career in Minnesota. Do what you want with this information.'”

What would it take for the Minnesota Vikings to acquire Adam Thielen from the Carolina Panthers?

Currently, Thielen is in the final year of his contract with the Panthers. Carolina reportedly has no plans to release the veteran wideout this offseason, but there has been nothing out that has stated they would be against trading him elsewhere.

If a team were to trade for Thielen this year, his cap hit for his new team would only be $6.75 million, according to OverTheCap.com. With Minnesota currently projected to have more than $63 million in cap space this year, they would easily be able to afford having their former wide receiver back on their roster next season.

If the Vikings would actually be interested in Thielen, who hauled in 48 passes for 615 yards and five touchdowns last season, how much would they have to give up to acquire him from the Panthers?

Coming off his 12th season in the NFL at the age of 34, Minnesota could probably get away with sending Carolina a Day 3 draft pick in 2026 in exchange for the veteran receiver.

Is wide receiver a need for the Vikings this year? Not particularly, but Jordan Addison could be suspended by the NFL for the first few games of the 2025 season, and having Thielen around during that time would be very helpful for Minnesota.

There hasn’t been any legit steam from any national reporters or Vikings insiders about Thielen wanting to return to Minnesota this year. But it’s certainly something to keep an eye on during the next few months as the Vikings build their roster for the 2025 season.