Adam Thielen found a taker on the waiver wire. The Steelers, who did not end up trading for a wide receiver at the deadline, are claiming the veteran, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports. Thielen had asked to be waived, but he did not end up making it to free agency — or too far down the wire.
This opportunity came about after the Vikings cut ties with the Minnesota native Monday. The Vikes had acquired Thielen from the Panthers just before the season. At the time, that move was framed as a way for Thielen to help out a hopeful contender. That did not end up happening, with the Vikings struggling (as the Panthers have reawakened). Now, Thielen will have a shot — in what looks set to be his final stretch of NFL action — to aid the Steelers’ quest to hang on in the AFC North.
A team already housing the likes of T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward did not shy away from adding aging talent this year, having signed Darius Slay and Aaron Rodgers while trading for Jalen Ramsey. The Steelers waived Slay earlier today, but Thielen — at 35 — will be brought in to help a scuffling passing attack. The NFL’s oldest active wideout, Thielen did not make much of an impact during his second Vikings stint. But he should have a better chance to do so with the Steelers.
Thielen caught eight passes for 69 yards in 11 Vikings games, operating as an afterthought in a Vikings receiving corps featuring Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor. The Steelers have not seen a D.K. Metcalf complementary option emerge.
Metcalf has 605 yards on the season; no other Steeler has more than 300. This, of course, comes as George Pickens has erupted in a contract year — following a May trade with the Cowboys. Pickens’ 1,142 yards in 12 games already set a new career-high mark. Pittsburgh developed an earned reputation for developing a host of wide receivers, but Roman Wilson has not caught on late in Year 2. The 2024 third-round pick has just 166 yards this season, after he missed almost all of his rookie year.
Although Thielen was not much help in J.J. McCarthy‘s debut, he does have a recent history of making significant contributions. Even in a 2024 season that saw him land on IR and miss seven games due to a hamstring injury, the former UDFA totaled 615 yards and five touchdowns. In his Carolina debut in 2023, Thielen posted his third 1,000-yard season — a 1,014-yard showing that included 103 catches. Maintaining quality form into his mid-30s, Thielen will attempt to help Rodgers in what is expected to be his final season.
Rodgers and Thielen have been friends for years, with the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling noting earlier today this fit would make sense. The duo had discussed playing together in the past. That will come together for a Steelers team that has struggled, limping to 6-6 and hearing a cascade of boos rain down during a one-sided Week 13 loss to the Bills. Tied with the Ravens atop the AFC North, the Steelers are in jeopardy of squandering a big lead and perhaps finishing with a losing record for the first time in Mike Tomlin‘s 19-year tenure.
One of the NFL’s better possession receivers during this period, Thielen had teamed with Jefferson and Stefon Diggs before him to form quality receiving tandems in Minnesota. On Vikings teams competing with Rodgers for NFC North supremacy, Thielen eclipsed 1,200 yards in 2017 and ’18, earning Pro Bowl nods each year. Thielen collected a second-team All-Pro accolade in 2017, helping the Vikings to the NFC championship game. Thielen’s 64 touchdown catches rank eighth among active players.
He earned two Minnesota extensions and, following a 2023 release, caught on with the Panthers on a three-year, $25MM deal. Thielen reworked that pact this summer, accepting a pay cut to facilitate a trade to his home-state team. He is attached to a $3MM base salary this season. The Steelers will be responsible for $882K via this claim. They entered the day with just less than $4MM in cap space.
Here’s an offensive coordinator whose play calls resemble the Bronco Nagurski era and a QB who gets rid of the ball too quickly so as not to be touched, but yeah, signing a receiver makes perfect sense. He’ll fit in well with the dink and dunk approach
Actually he will . He is not a deep threat or a burner so ….. on top of that provided the Steelers make The playoffs they already have the stink of one and done. So he is not going to take the Steelers to the souped bowl but he is not going to hurt them.
In other words, he’s not going to make much difference. Solid pick up then
He’s a great possession receiver who never drops the ball. Especially in crunch time. Rogers will love him.
This makes enough sense for a waiver claim from a football perspective, but it’s funny to get the oldest receiver in football to pair with the oldest quarterback in football.
You know your WR room is cooked when Adam you’ve lost that lovin’ Thielen is your #2.
He might as well retire now and refuse the nomination.
I get the fit, but its too little too late
Khan had a whole year to figure out WR2 and settled for a late season waiver claim?
Between this and trading George Pickens for only a 3rd round pick, Omar Khan has completely mismanaged the Steelers WR room.
Their entire roster in my opinion. There’s a reason they’re .500; crappy built team.
Its hard to find anything gone right.
The defense is pretty much TJ vs the world. Ramsey is great, but teams just avoid him.
The run D is non-existent.
Peyton Wilson, while his tackle numbers are incredible, has been nothing extraordinary to witness on the field. Just a lot of clean-up work behind and abysmal down line.
Gainwell and Warren have made for a servicable, yet unwhelming backfield duo -with Kaleb Johnson so far a bust.
TE’s have been utilized heavily, but havent drawn many if any explosive plays. Freiermuth, by far the most dynamic threat, has been used minimally in favor of 5 yard trucks to Darnell Washington. Jonnu Smith is pretty much irrelevant in the offense as well.
Receivers, oh boy. What a disaster. DKM is a servicable utility as a W2 with straight-line speed and size.
As a go-to option, he has neither the hands nor mobility to be the primary target in an offense.
How did Khan not foresee this?
Every other reveiver is inconsistent at best, and regularly invisible.
Thielen at least gives them a pair of hands on 3rd down, which is one of a bevy of glaring holes on this team.
I still have the Ravens cooking them this week, and the season’s over
I actually see them either losing out or going 1-4
You’re being too kind a bit, again
TJ disappears way too much. Has lost a step or two What a mistake the extension was
Highsmith is injured too frequently.
Cam is finished
Ramsey has lost a step. Or two
They get no pressure on the QB and can’t stop the run. Like the Bears game, the Bills were playing with back-ups on the line.
Rodgers plays timid. Can’t throw downfield because he wants to release the ball quickly so as to not get hit
DK has simply been mismanaged in this horrible offensive set up.
No number 2 but I’ll submit again, it would not have mattered.
Freiermuth was signed to an extension…to largely stand on the sidelines.
And they cut a good punter for this guy
This team resembles what we saw in the Brister or David Woodley years. It’s hard to see them beating most of the remaining teams on their schedule
Just like last year.
Haha. Yeah. Ok. Tomlin is the face of the franchise and has his hands on every aspect, but it’s Khan who’s mismanaged the WR room, and every other room
I’ll agree that they should burn it all down. But Tomlin first
Tomlin will leave
I’ll give him credit for being classy, though. Said today he’d boo, too, and understands fan frustration leading to the “Fire Tomlin” chants.
I can honestly say I be never booed a player or coach or called for their firing. To me, that’s classless. Credit to Tomlin.
I simply think when the year is over, mercifully, the franchise needs to move in a new direction
Tomlin will orchestrate his exit behind the scenes.
But Khan needs replaced as well.
Full clean slate is the only answer
Shame he didn’t go to a team with a good QB or with chance in playoffs.
Adam will get a chance to face the Ravens 26th ranked pass defense 3x this season. Most WRs would jump at a chance to do that 🙂
Thought he said he wanted to play for a Playoff team?
Perhaps he meant a Madden playoff team.
Well at least they didn’t give up a 5th for him like they did Mike Williams. This is window dressing.
I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t report, sheesh.
I’m wiling to bet that they were the last team he would have gone to if he was a FA. I think being a FA was his plan but that backfired didn’t it? Just a thought but did they have to put him on waivers to be ABLE to release him? Otherwise the Vikings crapped on him by not outright releasing him. Just a thought.
I feel for Thielen, likely wanted to go to a title contender but instead went to a .500 team in the worst division in football.
I doubt they fire Khan or Tomlin this year. It probably doesn’t happen until they get in position to take a new QB, which looks like it could be next year (depending on how bad this gets to close the season). I think Rodgers gets another year (which is honestly fine as far as QB goes, but not with that supporting cast), and they try to build this roster in the draft before picking their QB next year. They could panic-pick a QB this upcoming year, aka the Pickett scenario, but that Pickett pick showed exactly why you can’t force a quarterback pick just because you’ve decided that you need a quarterback. The difference is, last year Khan wasn’t feeling any pressure. This year, he probably is, though I doubt that Rooney is seriously thinking about firing him right now.
I pretty agree with Goku said, roster-wise. The wideouts are some of the worst I’ve ever seen at getting separation, rivaled only by the late Ben years. This offensive line isn’t as bad as those years, but it’s not much better. Seumalo I think is a bright spot, and Frazier has been good outside of the Buffalo game, but the others haven’t been consistently. The receivers might be worse, though, because every time Rodgers holds the ball, the camera pans up on the replay and there’s always two or three undersized receivers getting blanketed by DBs (or even linebackers) and Metcalf getting pushed off a route on the sideline (or dropping a pass, sometimes contested, sometimes not). Thielen is not what they need-they need a receiver with speed or size to be a threat in the deep middle, but he is an upgrade. Thielen will help in that he’ll give Rodgers a safety valve (which is what some of these other guys should already be doing), at least until they start doubling him and Metcalf. They could just let Wilson, Austin, or whomever run open, because that’s as much impact as they’ve had and the line will give up a pressure by that time anyway.
The run game, and offense in general, has really relied on Warren to be superhuman to even stay consistent in moving the ball. Warren is pretty good, but he’s not great enough to do that, especially all game, at his size. He’s definitely done his share carrying his portion of the burden. Brightwell is okay as a depth back or spell back, and has done his job in spots, but he’s doesn’t really elevate the team as a two. The problem for Pittsburgh is that simply doing your job at all consistently is enough to be elevation. They need another back, and Johnson has not produced at all to be the consistent carrier that they need.
The TE room is the only area where the Steelers are actually okay. Washington has finally been useful as a receiver with Rodgers, especially in short yardage and red zone, but Freiermuth needs to see the field more, despite his blocking. Smith has barely been used. I don’t know why, given how bad the WR room has been, they don’t just put him or Freiermuth out wide and run two TEs just to see what happens. If I had to rank receiving threats in terms of danger posed to enemy defenses, I’d probably go Metcalf, Freiermuth, Washington, Smith (should be higher but hasn’t played), and then Wilson/Austin. Not ideal.
The defense is…look, I get that the Steelers did what they could with some spare options, but acquiring two 30 somethings to be boundary corners with Joey Porter (who has been bad outside of a handful of good moments) was not going to work. The edge pressure has been less effective partially because the inside pressure hasn’t been consistent.
I’ll start here with Heyward, because he yet again complained about his contract in the offseason in what is becoming a routine. Well, he’s had some great moments, but play-to-play, he’s been blown off the line too in others. His age is showing in his lack of consistency. Should he have been brought back? Sure, but to do that and to still have an awful interior presence is ineffectual. Heyward still has great plays, but when he has average ones, his teammates haven’t bailed the defense out. The others were worse next to him (Black and the other linemen were nowhere near Harmon in the Buffalo game, and that drop-off is a huge problem for a unit that already struggles inside).
That’s the problem as a whole-consistency. Watt has been guilty of this as well. He’s had far too many games this year where he has been the second or third best rusher on the field, after Highsmith or Herbig or Queen on an inside blitz. This is especially true in the run game-teams, like Buffalo, just run straight at Watt instead of whomever is on the other side. Whatever the reason is, from changed protections to injuries, he hasn’t elevated the team as he used to in the past, and the team isn’t good enough to make up the difference.
The Steelers have a bunch of players can make good plays because of their experience or top end talent, but they give up gains on the next play or play after because of their age. The “others” (as Shaq would call them) have been bad or mediocre across the board. The team has a lot of average roleplayers who have contributed (Queen, Wilson, Washington, Brightwell, etc.) that have value, but they don’t have next level athleticism at most of their positions and it really shows on the field.
I don’t know how much of this is coaching (none of us can see that), but it sure looks like the discipline is low. I don’t say this to mean that players are misbehaving-there is zero evidence of that, and none have been immature that we can see (which is good because half of them are vets), but their gap discipline on the line has been bad and a lot of positioning in coverage has been spotty. It’s like each vet is running his position based off his individual tendencies due to lack of direction or lukewarm playcalling, which sometimes results in a big play and sometimes in a bust.
Austin has been worse, I think, than Smith as a coordinator, just based on different available approaches for him to take. I think that Smith has been trying to get a foundation that just isn’t there roster-wise, but Austin probably has more flexibility that he’s not exploring on defense that could mitigate some of pressure issues. Queen is coming more on inside pressures, which is good, but teams shouldn’t be able to run at Watt all game to get rush offense. There are too many veterans to not have the discipline in coverage or on routes. I’d wager that this team is really, really good in the film room, though.
This turned out longer than expected. I apologize. Get rations after paragraph two. If you finished reading it, you’ve taken more time than Rodgers has had in the pocket all year combined.
Tomlin has to get rid of Austin and Smith.
I would, yeah. Probably not midyear, barring a terrible collapse worse than what we’ve seen, because there’s not much better I don’t think and it won’t make the team better, but after the year they need help. It just hasn’t worked. I’d say that the roster is a bigger problem than the coaches, but the coaches (especially Austin) haven’t improved the team at all.
I agree with many of your points Ak but am ambivalent about others.
Smith follows a long line of OC’s who were complete failures here, but they were guys Tomlin wanted.
Austin is a de facto DC. It’s Tomlin’s defense. It’s what he prides himself on. And again, he wants agreeable guys in that role. This dates back to LeBeau, whom he couldn’t control
Like Goku, you seem to misunderstand that Tomlin is a stubborn, control freak kind of guy who has his hand in all aspects of the franchise.
The Rodgers signing was a complete disaster in that it’s clear that while the O-line has actually progressed from its dismal last couple of seasons, he’s a guy who at 42 doesn’t want to be hit. It’s rare that a call for a deep pass is made and just as apparent he gets rid of the ball quickly in dink and dunk passes so as not to be hit
Sit at the 50 yard line and watch what defenses are doing with DK. It’s what they did with Pickens to the nth degree. On one hand, secondaries know they won’t throw deep. On the other, they have no problem covering secondary receivers at all
A big trade and signing. For what?
This goes for Freiermuth too, of course. Is he playing even half of the offensive snaps these days? It’s like the priority is having extra blockers before guys who can catch. How else to explain it, or the few catches Jonnu has had?
I think the running backs are doing as well as one might expect for their abilities
But defensively? A line that gets no push on the QB and can’t stop the run?
And let’s face it, Cam and Watt were huge mistakes where extensions were concerned
When the secondary lost Elliott it became open season back there. Remember when people blamed Minkah for all that was wrong?
I agree with Goku here. I think Tomlin only leaves by his own volition. I like the guy. I think he’s a good man. But he and the franchise need to go in new directions. And as for the Steelers, has there ever been a greater need to burn it all down than this era?
Perhaps taking a page out of the Patriots ascent is a good blueprint, aside from hiring a coach like Mayo. Burn it down from top to bottom. Get rid of the deadwood and guys who either can’t handle it anymore or just quit. Build with youth. Find your franchise QB. Take your lumps for a couple years
Agreed on all points.
Wouldn’t be surprised if there is an organizational announcement after the season, where: Tomlin announces he plans to “retire” after next season, his 20th; both coordinators and a bunch of assistants are fired; and, significantly, Art Rooney II is stepping aside as the day-to-day face of ownership.
One other thing, you say there is not much better where coordinators or perhaps even head coaches are concerned. I disagree. Look around the league to see younger guys with fresh ideas building better teams. The Bears. Pack. Pats. Colts. Seahawks. Others.
I mean that there’s nothing better on the team right now. You have to replace those guys with someone for the year. And I don’t struggle to understand that Tomlin has his hand in everything. I agree that he does. I just don’t think that he’ll be fired until they hit the rest button, and I don’t think that will happen next year. I think that it’ll happen the year after, if next year is also disappointing.
Rodgers also isn’t just dunking and dunking to avoid hits-which he certainly is-he’s also doing it because you can’t throw while you’re being hit. The Steelers’ receivers aren’t getting separation, and the line still isn’t good in pass protection. They don’t really have a choice. A good, young QB would of course be ideal, but it wouldn’t change the glaring lack of offensive weapons and and average at best offensive line. It’s nowhere close to as bad as it was in the waning years of the Ben era, but the line still hasn’t earned the right to be called “good”, yet.
No matter what happens, the Steelers need a big draft to reload with youth at a bunch of positions that they’ve to Band-Aid over. Doing that in a draft where the QBs may or may not be great is a great time to do it. I actually like a couple of them this year, but Pittsburgh might as well spend its picks replacing some of the aged vets around the team rather than on a young passer. There are just too many needs.
Agreed. You don’t make changes when as bad as the team has been, they’re in the thick of the AFC North race
They have a large number of picks next year and to me, it makes sense to peddle a few high contract vets to get a few more. Again, it’s not like this hasn’t been done by other teams
I would dare say that Watt’s value might not be higher at the end of 2026 than it is at the end of 2025…not suggesting anything, just observing.
(I mean, the same could be said for Highsmith)
Agree on both counts. The time to peddle Watt for substantial return is likely over. But waiting another year?
As for Highsmith, he seems to have nagging injuries that return every time he comes back
I’d wonder if there’s a market for him.
Not sure if there’s a real drop off if these guys are gone, truthfully. Herbig is a good player. I think Sawyer can be good, as can Wilson
I dunno. Their problems are on the D-line and secondary. They need help.
Yup called it. Makes too much sense.
The reason Steelers are in this situation is too many winning seasons. Because they’re picking in the 20’s every year. MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE WENT IN THE TANK A COUPLE YEARS.
It’s not even about going in the tank, really. They signed aging stars to huge contracts that locked them up and brought in other aging guys all to “compete” for mediocre, “winning records”
No foresight whatsoever.
Roethlisberger was largely done two years before he retired. And they still haven’t replaced him. Maybe next year, they’ll sign Flacco