Minnesota Vikings Over/Unders: Adam Thielen

Before we get into today’s Over/Under, I want to point out that these are based on the supposition that the NFL will, in fact, find a way to play 16 games in 2020. It would be a little silly to try to do full season Over/Unders based on any other logic.

With that, it’s time to move on to the guy who is now the undisputed WR1 in the Vikings’ offense with the loss of Stefon Diggs. What can we expect from Adam Thielen in 2020 in the Vikings’ offense?

As we know, Thielen had his struggles with injuries in 2019, and as a result there were actually five other Vikings that had more receptions than #19 did last season, including rookies Irv Smith Jr. and Bisi Johnson. Obviously, with Diggs having packed his bags for upstate New York, Thielen is going to have the primary attention of defenses this coming season.

The Vikings added Justin Jefferson with their first selection in this year’s draft, and obviously we don’t know how he’s going to mesh with the Vikings’ offense. We also know that Gary Kubiak is going to continue along the lines of what we saw last season and continue to employ multiple tight end sets and run the football as much as possible. So, do we need to temper our expectations for Thielen a bit even with Kirk Cousins at quarterback?

Here are the Over/Under numbers for Thielen:

• Receiving yards: Over/Under 1,000
• Receiving touchdowns: Over/Under 6.5

Despite having just 30 catches in the regular season last year, Thielen managed to find the end zone six times. He’s only had more than seven touchdowns in a season once (in 2018 when he had nine), and even in his breakout 2017 season he scored just four times. So, while Thielen has been pretty productive yardage-wise over the years, he’s never found the end zone as frequently as you might think. Obviously he would have been well over seven last year had he not been injured, but them’s the breaks.

So, what do we think about Adam Thielen’s prospects in 2020, folks?