Adam Thielen Explains 'Wild' Experience With Aaron Rodgers

Adam Thielen's final season in the NFL was crazy. After being traded from Carolina to Minnesota, his homecoming was spoiled a bit by a lack of playing time with the Vikings, so he requested a trade and wound up on the field with Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers for the final five games of his career.

What was it like in Pittsburgh with future Hall of Fame head coach Mike Tomlin and Rodgers?

"It was unbelievable," Thielen said Friday on KFAN's Power Trip Morning Show. "To be the end of Tomlin's career and just to kind of get a little glimpse of why he was so great. His team meetings, his presence in that locker room, and practice was unbelievable. I instantly realized why they've always had success."

Thielen has known Rodgers for a long time, but numerous rounds of golf with the four-time MVP didn't reveal just how intense and motivated Rodgers was in a football setting.

"It was wild. He has an entire offense—outside of the offense—that basically is all hand signals. It wasn't necessarily difficult to learn the playbook, but learning that was extremely challenging and took so much time and effort," Thielen said.

"Basically, I got there on Wednesday morning at like 6 a.m. and played on Sunday. I'm asking him questions leading up to the game, and he wanted no business to talk to me at that time, probably, but I'm like, 'Hey, man, I need to get on the same page,' because I also know Aaron—you mess up something, you're probably not ever touching the field again. So I wasn't willing to take that risk.

"But also, it was really cool. Things that I'm so glad I learned and that I would love to share with guys in the future, just because there's things that he did preparation-wise. Again, it's like what I said about Tomlin: You get a glimpse of why these guys are so great and have been so great for so long.

"Is he talented? Yes, but you don't just get by and play that long nd have that much success just by talent. His preparation was unbelievable, and he did it every day. His work ethic was way beyond what I thought, and just like his intensity in practice. He treated practices, two-minute drill, like it was the Super Bowl. So that was cool to see."

Adam Thielen tells the @PowerTripKFAN about what it was like to play for Mike Tomlin and play with Aaron Rodgers at the end of his final season in the NFL.https://t.co/dWVGWEsn62 pic.twitter.com/WxhKoMsAqi
— KFAN1003 (@KFAN1003) March 27, 2026

Thielen played 13 years in the NFL, finishing his career with 704 receptions for 8,497 yards and 64 touchdowns. The Minnesota native and former Division II Minnesota State-Mankato star will certainly be a permanent fixture with the Vikings when he's inducted into the team's Ring of Honor in the future.