Adam Thielen is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He’s also among the most underpaid players in the league. Thielen’s agent, Blake Baratz, says he’s optimistic about getting an extension hammered out this offseason, but added that his client will not engage in a holdout. 
“Adam’s not that type of person,” Baratz told SKOR (via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin). “I would never condone a player to hold out or be disruptive if it wasn’t for a very valid reason, and [what’s not] a valid reason, to me, is both sides working in good faith to come to a conclusion that makes sense for everybody.”
Without a holdout, it’s hard to see the Vikings caving. Thielen’s under-market extension has him under contract for just $5.85MM in base salary this season and $6.5MM in 2020. Often times, teams elect to hold off on extension talks until the final season, meaning that the 28-year-old (29 in August) may have to play out one more season at a bargain rate before pushing for a new deal.
“This team has a lot of really good things in place for it, and I know they want to take care of Adam and I know they want Adam there and I know they want to reward Adam,” Baratz said.
Thielen followed up his 91/1,276/4 line in 2017 with a 113/1,373/9 stat line in 2018. The Vikings disappointed on the whole in 2018, but Theilen had an exceptional year en route to his second-straight Pro Bowl appearance.
He signed a contract, so honor it! He’s GREEDY!
He’s far from greedy
Far from greedy…but you did sign for a certain amount…if you suck ass next year can the Vikings have some money back? And the amount you’re playing for far exceeds what 98% of us regular joes will ever come close to making in an entire lifetime. Play out 1 more season and go from there. It’s fair.
In the NFL they can just cut him if he sucks with no repercussions unless he had guaranteed money. I wish the other sports (especially baseball) could do the same. We’d see HUGE contracts but give them teams the flexibility to get out of bad deals.
It’s harsh in the NFL, it’s far too forgiving in the MLB. Somewhere in between would be nice.
Completely agree.
If Thielen were to suck next year, the team could demand he restructure his deal as teams do EVERY off-season, and as the Vikings will probably do with Everson Griffen, Kyle Rudolph and perhaps another two or three players this off-season.
I’ll take the people who shout that players should “honor their contracts” seriously when they say the exact same thing about a team the next time it demands a player restructure his contract.
He did say he is NOT HOLDING OUY! HOWS THIS GREEDY
You clearly don’t understand NFL contracts. He’s not greedy.
This just went way over yours and Drays head I believe the point troll was trying to make was and I hate bringing race into this but when a black player wants a new contract people on here say he’s greedy and should honor his contract but when it’s a white player it’s a different story as proved by you 2!
what?!?! you’ve got to be kidding me. that couldn’t be further from the truth, what an asinine comment.
le’veon bell isn’t greedy either, he wants what he’s worth and is getting underpaid. the teams and the NFL make enough money to pay their stars according
Get over yourself and all of this race baiting BS…You’re perpetuating an issue that shouldn’t and wouldn’t be if people would just be human and squash this crap…So stupid!!! Thielen needs to do what he can to secure his future as should everyone else regardless of demographic. Sports is sports and we are all equal as long as we have the maturity and intelligence to be so…
THANK YOU TRUTH!!! See how quickly they change their opinions when it’s “Someone the like”?
Oh yeah… there have been a bunch of people calling Bell greedy, over the 2yrs, so YEA, I was being sarcastic when the I said the The “All American White Guy” was greedy for wanting a new contract. Hey man, if it walks/talks like a duck, then, you know the rest.
Is this posted in English somewhere?
Hahahahahaha!!!
Dude he turned himself into a better receiver than Diggs. Asking for some more money isn’t greedy it’s smart. You can only play for so long so asking for fair compensation compared to the other 9 top receivers in the league is completely fair. He’s a stand up guy through and through and deserves a bump in pay. The only greed would be from the the Vikes front office. It’s really simple. If they don’t pay him more he’ll leave when he hits free agency because no loyalty was shown to him. MIN would be the greedy ones in this scenario.
And this is exactly why players get so overpaid past there primes, obv football isn’t fully guaranteed money so different then say baseball for example. But still the same point to be made.
Like all billionaires do, they make us fight amongst ourselves rather than focusing on them. He’s 28 (29 before season starts) he doesn’t have a ton of time to cash in & we always demonize players for wanting to get paid…. if he doesn’t.. it goes in the Wylfs pockets. They don’t need it. They got 500 million of free money to build US bank stadium. Players deserve every dollar they make & are taxed at an astounding rate. Let the man make his money & let the owners make a little less. Raise the cap & make the owners pony up.
The Vikings should get to wreak the benefits of their strategic move they made to take a gamble on theilen when they did. That’s part of being a gm. He can sign a new on next offseason
Unfortunately that one good gamble by the GM was undone by driving the payroll costs to the league’s highest level and putting the Vikings in salary cap jail. Thielen will probably have to fall on his sword as a result of Cousins being overpaid.
The proletariat thanks you for your post.
Zygi has to pay for pooter.
Jerry Jones is so rich, he bought George Washington’s actual teeth & wears them. Little squares of hard butter.
Dan Snyder is 2 inches hard
Mark Davis spent all his money on trendy haircuts & acid washed jeans
Different sport but Mark Cuban has an actual blood boy. Google it.
“I would never condone a player to hold out or be disruptive if it wasn’t for a very valid reason”
Hilarious. I bet Baratz needs a box of tissues when he watches the Jerry Maguire movie.
James Dolan has enough Fedoras to give two to every guy in America that cranks it to anime
Are you having your stroke in installments?
Sounds like player, agent and team are moving forward in a mature, professional way. It seems to have negative consequences on relationships when a player/agent has to resort to a holdout to spur a team to renegotiate. Couldn’t the Vikes throw on some incentives to the current deal to reward Thielen while still protecting themselves?
Vikes payroll leaves no room for incentives but I suppose they could throw in a couple of tickets to the Bears playoff games.
His contract is already larded with incentives (from spotrac):
“2018-2020 Per Game Active Bonus: $6,250 ($100,000)
Pro Bowl: $500,000
Reception Incentives:
70: $500,000
80: $250,000
90: $250,000
70 catches +1,050 yards: $300,000
80 catches +1,200 yards: $600,000
2019 salary escalated $2M per 100+ receptions in 2018
2020 salary escalator: $2M w/ 90+ receptions in 2019”
He gets hurt or starts to suck, they just cut him. Pretty simple. No team is married to a player unless they somehow manage to bleep up the cap figure. That’s generally done with QBs not WRs.
Of any player Thielen deserves to get paid. Local guy that had “no stock” coming in and proved himself ten fold. Not some drama queen showboat idiot, just a ball player from Mankato college and made a name for himself by to figure, working hard and showing results. Just like anyone else in the world that’s how it should be. Screw your silver spoon and getting everything handed to you, go out and earn it. I believe this is a prime example. Don’t let him go vikes like apparently you’re about to let go of Barr. (Different cases but dumb) Could’ve used those QB dollars on this and some better offensive linemen.
They lose 2 good players because of bad financial management. Maybe it’s the GM that needs to go.
A new deal for more money? A “green” new deal, one might say…
No wonder the Vikings won’t budge, with their cap situation. Can’t blame them, but he deserves more.