Minnesota Vikings: How Adam Thielen’s absence matters vs. Panthers

The Minnesota Vikings will likely face the Panthers without Adam Thielen.

The Minnesota Vikings have been the NFL’s top-ranked red-zone scoring offense through 11 weeks of the 2020 NFL season and are now at risk of playing Sunday’s game without their primary receiving target Adam Thielen.

Thielen, who tested positive before negative for COVID-19 earlier this week, is currently working through the NFL’s coronavirus protocol. At the moment, it’s unclear whether or not the NFL”s leader in touchdown receptions will be available for the Vikings game against the Carolina Panthers. He needs to provide more negative tests in the coming days in order to be available for the matchup.

However, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on Friday that Thielen was not expected to play on Sunday. So it looks as if the Vikings are going to be without the NFL leader in receiving touchdowns (11) in Week 12.

What might the Minnesota Vikings offense look like minus Thielen?

Thielen has a league-high 11 touchdown catches this season,and has been one of Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins’ favorite targets throughout the last few seasons. In 2020, the wideout has been responsible for 55 percent of the team’s receiving touchdowns.

Furthermore, both Thielen and Cousins have linked up for an astonishing 10 red-zone touchdowns this season. Now, the quarterback faces the reality that his go-to-guy might be unavailable for this weekend’s game. However, the former-Michigan State Spartan seemed unfazed by the potential absence.

“We’ve had other people out during practices and tried to change things,” Cousins said while speaking with members of the media, via the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “That’s just been kind of part of managing the virus. Obviously, you deal with injuries, too. We had lost Adam last year as well for several weeks, so it’s just kind of part of the process of going through the season.”

Cousins and Thielen have a backup plan for the Minnesota Vikings

Without Thielen, the Vikings still have an ample amount of talent capable of converting in the endzone. Running back Dalvin Cook is one of the NFL’s top-producing runners this season, and rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson continues to evolve into one of the league’s top deep-threat players as the 2020 season continues.

Cook has tallied eight touchdowns from runs inside the 5-yard line this season. The figure is tops in the league amongst running backs this year and one away from his total in all of 2019. Without Thielen, his red-zone workload is expected to increase.

Jefferson, the Vikings’ first-round pick from last April’s draft has been extremely impressive in his first professional season. The speedster has amassed 848-receiving-yards to go along with four touchdowns. Still, he speaks volumes about his veteran counterpart Thielen and went in-depth to explain what the Vikings will be potentially missing against Carolina.

“He’s sure-handed,” Jefferson said of Thielen while speaking to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in the same article. “He’s able to make those hard catches that you have to adjust to. He can also get his two feet in the end zone as well, so he’s got the toe tap.”

Should things progress as expected, we’ll see how the Vikings offense can deal with the absence of Thielen as they welcome the Panthers to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday.