Less than 24 hours after he was a healthy scratch, veteran receiver Adam Thielen has been waived by the Vikings.

In a statement released by the Vikings, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said Thielen asked for his release last week, expressing a desire to play a bigger role on offense. After taking everything into consideration, the Vikings granted Thielen his release this week, giving him a chance to find a new team with a little more than a month left in this season.

This puts a sour end to a Minnesota homecoming that was hyped up after the Vikings acquired Thielen, 35, in a trade with the Carolina Panthers over the summer.

Though he saw a good amount of playing time while receiver Jordan Addison served his suspension, Thielen saw his snap count steadily decrease over the past couple of months. He was clearly an insurance policy for the Vikings more than anything else.

In a statement released on his personal social media, Thielen indicated that he plans to retire after this season, thanking the Vikings for giving him a chance to play out the remainder of his career elsewhere.

“This is tremendously difficult for me to write and certainly not how any of us imagined this to go,” Thielen said. “This organization means the world to us from the top down and this locker room is filled with true professionals.”

The final line of his message featured Thielen saying that he planned to retire with the Vikings. That will come at some point down the road as Thielen is now headed to waivers.

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