2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Tetairoa McMillan

Last Updated: 3/6/2025

Career Stats

Summary

Right from his arrival in Arizona, Tetairoa McMillan was an impact player for the Wildcats, setting a freshman school record with 702 receiving yards. His ascension continued as a sophomore amassing the second-most receiving yards in the Pac-12 with 1402, a mark that is the second most in a single season in program history. There was a slight regression in his final year, but he still totaled over 1,300 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns.

Tetairoa McMillan is everything you want in a perimeter receiver and more. His 6-foot-4 frame gives him the length and height to defeat lengthy corners. He is on the more slender side at 219 pounds but has room to add onto that frame once in an NFL program. His game revolves around manipulation and leverage especially in his routes where he has a knack for putting defenders in tough situations at the top of his stem. Enhancing this is his understanding of leverage points and his fluidity, he doesn’t have to slow down at the top of the stem, which makes it tougher for defenders to read and react. At Arizona, we have seen a decent route tree consisting of mostly soft-breaking routes or stop routes. Leaning on his long strides, ball tracking and reacceleration skills, as opposed to refinement to expose defenders thus far. Raising concern if he can develop his route tree to become more of a consistent intermediate area threat — I am less concerned here, his athleticism should allow him to refine his routes easily. We also see strong football IQ and creativity, pivoting off routes to find open space in zones and creating big plays.

At the line of scrimmage, he is rather inexperienced against press coverage as his speed and deep field threat forced many defensive backs to play off coverage. We also see a lack of physicality within his routes or releases, which raises questions if he will be able to defeat this at the next level. At the catch point, it is a bit of a mixed bag, we see some stellar one-handed highlight reel-type catches, but we also see some consistency drops. More often than not he has good hand placement and has a natural ferocity when high pointing the ball. Adding some weight and physicality will allow him to become a better contested catch player at the next level.

McMillan may be best with the ball in his hands. His transition from receiver to runner is extremely fluid and efficient, allowing him to create yards after the catch on almost every play. He is not juking defenders out of their socks, but his speed and fluidity make him hard to tackle once in the open field. With a simple upper body shimmy, he can lose defenders and produce chunk plays by marrying his quick acceleration and long strides allowing him to eat up yards quickly.

Strengths

• Yards after the catch
• Strong hands
• Soft breaking routes
• Top end speed

Weaknesses

• Limited route tree
• Could use more physicality
• Limited release packages

Honors and Awards

• First-Team All-American (Phil Steele, AFCA, AP, Pro Football Focus, CBS/247Sports) (2024)
• First-Team All-Big 12 (Phil Steele, and AP) (2024)
• AP Second-Team All-Pac-12 (2023)
• AP Third-Team All-American (2023)

Athletic Testing

• 40-yard dash: TBD
• Vertical: TBD
• Broad Jump: TBD
• Three-cone: TBD
• Shuttle: TBD
• Bench: TBD

NFL Role Prediction

• X wide receiver

Fantasy Outlook

Tetairoa McMillan projects as a true perimeter receiver at the next level but offers positional versatility with plenty of slot reps under his belt. This will allow NFL coaches to find plenty of ways to get the ball in his hands, leading to plenty of opportunities to produce fantasy points. If he is selected in the top 10 of the draft as rumored, it’s likely we will see WR2 productions from the start. Producing consistent top-12 numbers is well within the range of outcomes for McMillan, allowing him to become a cornerstone on your dynasty roster.

Player Comparisons

• Drake London
• Mike Evans
• Quentin Johnston