Adam Thielen speaks on offense’s lack of explosive plays

Adam Thielen was a standout for the Carolina Panthers offense on Monday night, leading the entire group in receiving yards and getting himself into the end zone. But, uh, he only recorded 54 receiving yards . . . and that touchdown was the only one the team had.

Unfortunately, that’s the unit in a nutshell thus far this season—as the 0-2 start, with losses to the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans, has been littered with offensive shortcomings. And Thielen, when asked by Vashti Hurt of Carolina Blitz, spoke about the early struggles on Wednesday.

“I think because it’s early on in the season, it’s more emphasized, right? Like, ‘Oh, they haven’t made any explosive plays,’” he replied. But I think every offense, every team—they go through these times where, ya know what, the defenses did a great job of taking away big plays and forcin’ us to do one certain thing.”

The Panthers are one of two teams in 2023, along with the Las Vegas Raiders, not to notch a passing play of at least 25 yards. Much of that can be attributed to their pass catchers’ lack of separation on their routes.

Through these pair of outings, Thielen has averaged 2.9 yards of separation with Terrace Marshall Jr. at 2.3 and Jonathan Mingo at 1.8—the fifth-lowest in the NFL. By comparison, the league leader—Curtis Samuel (old friend alert!)—averaged 5.0 yards of space.

Nonetheless, the 33-year-old vet and two-time Pro Bowler seems confident those issues will be fixed.

“And, yeah, in this league, do you have to have explosive plays to win games? Yes, 100 percent,” Thielen added. “Do we have the guys and the players and the coaches to do that? Yes.

“So for us, it’s just go out there do your job, don’t do anything more than you have to do. And I know I have a lot of belief in the players and the coaches in this building that we’re gonna find a way to win football games and be a great offense.”