{"id":87129,"date":"2026-01-15T03:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87129\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:32:11","slug":"receiver-adam-thielen-retires-from-nfl-after-12-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/87129\/","title":{"rendered":"Receiver Adam Thielen retires from NFL after 12 seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most productive receivers of this era is calling it a career.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Thielen, who played this past season with the Steelers, formally announced his retirement after 12 seasons in an Instagram post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old made it clear this would be his final campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/01\/sports\/vikings-waive-adam-thielen-as-receiver-seeks-bigger-role-before-retirement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after the Vikings waived him on Dec. 1<\/a>, and he did not go back on that after reaching the postseason with Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38187480\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/pittsburgh-steelers-wide-receiver-adam-117725842.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Adam Thielen (16) running with the ball against the Detroit Lions.\" class=\"wp-image-38187480\"  \/>Steelers wide receiver Adam Thielen runs the ball after a catch during the fourth quarter of the Steelers\u2019 win over the Lions at Ford Field earlier in the season. Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat a ride it has been!\u201d Thielen wrote on his Instagram story in response to a Football Forever post. \u201c13 years what a blessing! Have been blessed with so many great relationships and mentors over the years that I am forever grateful for! Thank you to everyone who has supported me through the years, it has meant everything to my family and I!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He became one of the most consistent wide receivers in the NFL for the Vikings after going undrafted in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thielen caught 704 passes for 8,497 yards and 64 touchdowns in his career. <\/p>\n<p>He had the most productive years of his career from 2016-22, averaging 73.4 catches, 914 yards and 7.7 touchdowns per season, making the Pro Bowl twice.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.61006289;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38187536\" width=\"950\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/minnesota-vikings-wide-receiver-adam-25030684.jpg\" alt=\"Adam Thielen, wearing a purple Minnesota Vikings jersey, walks off the field after a football game.\" class=\"wp-image-38187536\"  \/>Minnesota wide receiver Adam Thielen walks off the field after the Vikings\u2019 home win over the Bears on Dec. 31, 2017. AP<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota State alum spent the final three seasons of his career between the\u00a0Panthers, Vikings and Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>Thielen had 11 receptions for 117 yards and no touchdowns during five games in the black and yellow, helping the Steelers win the AFC North before they were <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/12\/sports\/aaron-rodgers-battered-by-texans-in-loss-as-retirement-question-looms\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bounced by the Texans in the wild-card round<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thielen joined the Panthers in 2022 on a three-year deal, but only reached the 1,000-yard mark in his first season before being traded back to the Vikings before this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most productive receivers of this era is calling it a career. Adam Thielen, who played&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28427,11864,4968,1418,73,75,74,1833,726],"class_list":["post-87129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-adam-thielen","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}