Now with Steelers, Adam Thielen talks about departure from Vikings

Adam Thielen did not make the decision to ask for his release from the Vikings lightly. Before this season, he was fired up to go home and re-join the franchise where he spent the first decade of his career.

Things just didn't go to plan during his second stint in Minnesota. Thielen's role in the offense shrank after the first few weeks of the season, and the competitor in him started to think about wanting to pursue an opportunity to play more down the stretch of what might be his final NFL season. Eventually, he made that request, the Vikings granted it, and he was claimed off waivers by the Steelers.

Speaking in his first press conference as a Steeler on Thursday, Thielen said it wasn't easy at all to leave the Vikings.

"Extremely tough," he said. "Extremely tough. It really wore on me mentally. Yeah, tough. Very, very, very tough. But again, just excited to have an opportunity."

Thielen said he had an idea that the Steelers were a potential landing spot. He was subject to waivers, not an outright free agent, but he's happy with where he ended up. Pittsburgh can take the lead in the AFC North with a win over the Ravens on Sunday.

"The situation that they're in — that we're in," Thielen said about why it's a good fit. "The opportunity to come and make an impact. There's so much out of your control at that point, so just trying to talk to my agent, get a grasp for what teams had needs at that position, and then see what happened."

In his first few days with his new team, Thielen has immersed himself in trying to learn the playbook as quickly as he can and earn an opportunity to play. It remains to be seen if he'll be active and maybe even have a role in this weekend's game in Baltimore, but he's doing everything he can to make that a possibility.

In the statement Thielen released after the Vikings waived him, he said this will be his final NFL season. He wasn't quite as definitive on that front when asked the question by the Pittsburgh media. Thielen said he's living in the moment right now, but did somewhat leave the door open to the idea that he might not be done after this season.

"I did make a statement and put it in there, which I probably shouldn't have put that in there," he said with a smile. "After every season, I've really just kind of come together with my family and prayed about it, really thought about bigger picture of what that looks like. I did say that. I mean, obviously things can change. I feel like I've given every thing I've had for so long that I can feel really good about it if that's what it looks like, which it feels that way as of right now."

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