Adam Thielen said he found out the Vikings traded for tight end TJ Hockenson from “an alert on my phone from like ESPN or something.”
“We don’t get any insider information. I think it’s funny when people ask ‘hey, who are you guys going to draft this year?’ and I’m like, ‘your guess is as good as mine’ they keep that pretty tight to their chest,” Thielen said in his Friday radio hit on KFAN’s The Power Trip Morning Show.
Thielen said the move showed that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell “…believe that we have a really good team that you can add some pieces that make us better and to help us win now.”
“They could have easily come in here and blew things up and planned for the future,” Thielen continued. “It gave us confidence knowing that when they do these things that it sends a message that ‘Hey we believe in you guys. Now go prove it on the field on Sunday’”
At Tuesday’s trade deadline the Vikings sent the Detroit Lions their 2023 second-round pick and 2024 third-round pick for Hockenson, a 2023 fourth-round pick, and a 2024 conditional fourth-round pick.
When asked about his early impressions of Hockenson, Thielen said: “You can tell he just fits right in. His ability to come out here and actually practice with having two days of knowing the offense makes me feel not very smart. It took me about three months to get to that point.”
The 32-year-old receiver appeared on the injury report this week with a knee injury though he was a full participant in practices this week. “It’s getting there. You kind of have those throughout the season where you bang something up and you kind of deal with it for the rest of the season,” Thielen said. “It’s good enough. I’m practicing. I’m playing. It’s all good.”
