Vikings receiver Adam Thielen has become one of the best receivers in all of football, but getting to this point took a lot of work.
He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2013 out of Division II Minnesota State.
He had a rookie minicamp, spring drills and four preseason games to prove himself to coaches, and ultimately he got a spot on the practice squad.
Due to the circumstances this year, there were no OTAs, there won’t be any preseason games, rosters will likely be reduced from 90 to 80, and we still don’t know how training camp will work.
Thielen told Chris Tomasson of St. Paul Pioneer Press that he wound’t make it in the NFL if he was a rookie right now.
“I know that if I was going through this offseason as a rookie, I wouldn’t be in the NFL,” Thielen said. “There’s no chance. So, that part is difficult (for undrafted free agents), but at the same time it’s a unique situation that nobody could have anticipated.”
“You have to try to make the most of your situation, and you can’t control a lot of it,” Thielen said of this year’s undrafted free agents. “So, I know there’s going to be a lot of guys that maybe have to try again next year or maybe get some workouts throughout the season. I don’t know. But it’s definitely going to be a different year.”
The cancellation of the preseason because of COVID-19 will cost a lot of players an opportunity to prove that they can compete in the NFL.
The Vikings drafted a whopping 15 players in April’s draft and also signed 12 undrafted free agents. It’s entirely possible that there’s another Adam Thielen out there, whose career is now over before it started.
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