The Minnesota Vikings will be a little different without Adam Thielen on the roster, but if his assessment of K.J. Osborn is accurate, they should be just fine.
Thielen made an appearance with Matthew Coller on the Purple Insider podcast this weekend and was asked if there was anything that reporters got wrong during his time in Minnesota. Instead of pushing back on the idea that he was in the final years of his career, Thielen endorsed Osborn, who he believes can be a top receiver in the NFL.
“I think everyone’s been a little bit wrong about K.J.,” Thielen said. “I just think that he is a WR1 in this league and I think he has so much talent. …I think his attitude, his effort, the way he approaches every single day. His mindset is one of the best I’ve ever been around.”
Osborn was selected as a fifth-round pick by the Vikings in the 2020 draft, but didn’t make a single reception during his rookie year while serving as the team’s punt returner.
Osborn broke out the following year with 50 catches, 655 yards and seven touchdowns in 2021 and caught 60 passes for 650 yards and five touchdowns last season, he showed flashes of more including his Week 14 performance against the Indianapolis Colts where he caught 10 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown in the Vikings’ epic comeback victory.
With the arrival of Jordan Addison, who the Vikings selected in the first round of this year’s draft, Osborn’s path to having a huge year may be blocked. But Thielen believes that his work ethic can help him reach that ceiling and be a key piece of the Vikings’ offense in 2023.
“[He’s] a great teammate [and] locker room guy,” Thielen said. “[He’s] the hardest worker every single day and [he] cares so much about his teammates and getting himself better every single day. I just think that he gets disrespected sometimes and I don’t think it’s deservedly so and I can’t wait for him to have a big year.”
