As the Minnesota Vikings' wide receiver depth chart kept taking dings during training camp and preseason games, the idea of bringing Adam Thielen back home gained more and more traction. The day after roster cuts around the league, after it had taken a turn toward unlikely, the trade got done.
According to Joe Person of The Athletic, the Vikings' initial offer to the Panthers for Thielen was a sixth-round pick for the veteran wide receiver and a seventh-rounder. No one would blame the Panthers for saying "no thank you" to that, given their own measure of leverage as the Vikings were so obviously in the market for a wide receiver.