Thor Nystrom delivers the Tetairoa McMillan Scouting Report ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Tetairoa McMillan is one of the most imposing physical specimens at the wide receiver position coming into the 2025 NFL Draft. The University of Arizona product is a blend of size, speed, and talent all rolled into one. He's expected to be one of the top players selected early in the first round of the upcoming draft on April 24.

Tetairoa McMillan, From Hawaii, to Arizona, to The NFL

Tetairoa McMillan

Arizona | 6-foot-4 / 219 pounds

RAS: N/A | Comp: Drake London

California’s Mr. Football in 2021, McMillan posted an 88-1,302-18 receiving line on offense with eight interceptions and two pick-sixes on defense for Servite of Anaheim. He was the No. 51 overall recruit in the 2021 class according to the 247Sports composite.

McMillan originally committed to play for Mario Cristobal at Oregon. McMillan grew up in Hawaii before moving to Southern California—his hero was Honolulu native Marcus Mariota, who won the Heisman at Oregon.

But when Cristobal left for Miami, McMillan reversed course. He flipped to Arizona and became the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with the Wildcats. McMillan told reporters that he wanted to join high school teammates QB Noah Fifita, TE Keyan Burnett, and LB Jacob Manu on the Wildcats. 

Fifita in particular had a big say in that—he’s McMillan's best friend. Still, it was an enormous statement for McMillan to pick Arizona coming off a 1-11 season. His signing catapulted Arizona’s recruiting class into the top 25 that year.

In 2022, McMillan earned multiple Freshman All-American accommodations after breaking Arizona’s single-season freshman record with 702 receiving yards. He tied for No. 2 in the Pac-12 with first-rounders Jordan Addison and Dalton Kincaid with 8 TDs.

McMillan’s national coming-out party came as a sophomore in 2023, when he posted 90 catches and 1,402 yards to go with 10 scores. After that season, Arizona HC Jedd Fisch left for Washington to replace Kalen DeBoer. Arizona hired ex-San Jose State HC Brent Brennan to fill the vacancy.

Brennan’s first priority with Arizona was to convince McMillan to return, along with his best-buddy Fifita. Fisch was, of course, selling the pair on following him to Seattle. Brennan ultimately prevailed.

“The first time I saw him step on the field I was just blown away by his body control, his route running, and his ability to finish on the ball,” Brennan said. “It’s unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. I’m a receiver guy by trade, right? That’s what I coached. So, I remembered him in high school when he was breaking records and dominating both in football and in volleyball. He's so special."

Last season, McMillan posted an 84-1,319-8 receiving line to earn first-team AP All-American honors. In three years, he became Arizona’s all-time leader with 3,423 career receiving yards. McMillan, the consensus WR1 in this draft class, has accepted an invitation from the NFL to attend the NFL Draft in Green Bay.

Tetairoa McMillan Scouting Report

Standing a shade over 6-foot-4 with one of the WR class’ biggest wingspans, McMillan has a bloated catch radius and vice-grip hands to spear any balls thrown within it. McMillan is a downfield killer.

Last year, despite playing with a quarterback who lacks arm strength, McMillan posted an elite 97.2 PFF grade on passes 20+ air yards downfield. He posted a nearly identical 97.1 PFF grade on passes 10-19 yards downfield. 

The former basketball and volleyball standout is very comfortable in the air, and there is no defensive back getting higher than him. McMillan’s ball adjustments are a thing of beauty, using a Gumby-like pliability to get the best of the positioning game.

McMillan forces defenders to go through his back to defend balls. He went 19-for-31 in contested situations last year—the second-most contested catches of any receiver in this draft class. He also finished No. 2 in the class in that category in 2023.

In college, opposing defensive coordinators knew they were cooked if they allowed Fifita to unload a ball downtown to McMillan in one-on-one coverage. The most ubiquitous strategy to prevent it—outside of over-the-top help, of which Tet saw plenty—was to try to mug McMillan off the line. 

Refining his release package is one area McMillan can work on to improve at the next level. McMillan is a north-south player in general, and this bleeds into his releases. Off the line, his footwork is predictable, and it can lead him right into the press-corner’s hands. At the NFL level, this will be exploited more often if not corrected.

McMillan’s ball skills are out of this world. The thing that makes him so difficult to defend is the fisherman’s-net catch radius with those vice-grip hands. McMillan is dangerous in the intermediate area. Arizona didn’t manufacture him touches behind the line, but it pumped 42% of McMillan’s targets 0-9 yards downfield. 

McMillan proved he could win in the quick game and collect yards after the catch. It’s next-to-impossible to defend McMillan on a slant route in man coverage if you can’t impede his progress at the line.

McMillan is an underrated runner after the catch. If the throw is accurate when he’s on the move, McMillan gracefully plucks it from the air and keeps moving without wasted motion. Especially for a tall tree, McMillan is a slippery runner. He posted 430 YAC yards in 2024, and finished No. 4 in this class with 55 first-down catches.

The biggest question with McMillan’s athletic profile is his straight-line speed. He didn’t run the 40 at the NFL Combine, and it would be no surprise if he followed in Drake London’s footsteps and bypassed athletic testing altogether this process. McMillan is a long-strider with build-up-speed. He isn’t sudden, but, when he gets moving, his giraffe steps chew up grass very quickly.

The most ubiquitous knock on McMillan is that he doesn’t create separation. I do think he needs to work on his route-running—there are downfield reps where it doesn’t appear that he’s trying to shake his man at all. In his defense, McMillan is very crafty in tight quarters downtown when the ball is on the way, creating slivers of space with his hands.

McMillan could stand to vary his tempo more often, and in general go to more lengths to tell his man a story with his routes that he can flip on them. But I do see a clever receiver against zone coverage who knows how to find the soft spot. 

Over the past two years, McMillan was 74th-percentile in separation percentile, per PFF. This is where things get interesting. Against zone coverage, McMillan was charted as open on a ludicrous 94.3% of his targets. 

Against man, that plummeted all the way to 53.6%. McMillan finished in the 39th-percentile in separation percentage in single-coverage man. McMillan does tend to create the small amounts of space that he needs to use his ball skills as a trump card. But it’s nonetheless true that he does not consistently create separation in man coverage.

McMillan showed more versatility in college than he’s given credit for. Over his career, McMillan played roughly three quarters of his snaps on the boundary, with one quarter in the slot. On the outside, Arizona shifted him between the “X” and “Z” roles. A creative offensive mind could have a lot of fun exploiting mismatches with him.

While McMillan didn’t athletically test in Indianapolis, he did submit to the AIQ—a cognitive test teams use in the pre-draft process. According to Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz, McMillan posted the highest AIQ score of any receiver in this year’s class.

McMillan’s game is extremely similar to London, who went No. 8 overall three years ago. I expect McMillan to go in a similar range. McMillan doesn’t project as a superstar, but he’s either going to be a steady WR1, or an exceptional WR2 in the NFL.

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