Tetairoa McMillan Pointing Toward A Breakout Fantasy Football Season
Fantasy

Tetairoa McMillan Pointing Toward A Breakout Fantasy Football Season

Ian Hartitz analyzes the pass catchers for the Carolina Panthers, led by former first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan.

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Tetairoa McMillan is a player you can dream on. Standing 6-foot-5 and 212 pounds, he's the prototype of the tall, multi-talented WR that all 32 NFL teams covet. Coming off a 1,014-yard season, is there another level he can reach in leading the Carolina Panthers' pass catchers. Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Carolina Panthers Team Preview.

Does Tetairoa McMillan have legit high-end WR1 upside?

The 2025 NFL Draft's eighth overall pick had himself a very solid rookie season. A 70-1,014-7 receiving line is nothing to scoff at–especially considering the aforementioned mediocre QB play–and the eye test revealed a big-body beast capable of bullying corners at the catch point. He made more than a few absolutely ridiculous snags that unfortunately didn't count. By all accounts, T-Mac had a great rookie season, and there's reason to believe bigger and better things could be on the horizon for the 23-year-old talent.

Here's the catch: McMillan pretty much needs to take a decent step forward, like now, to fulfill his suddenly lofty WR16 (pick 36.5) ADP. Reminder: Life generally went pretty great in 2025, but McMillan still "just" finished as the WR21 in PPR points per game.

But you know what, it's tough to overly bicker with the sentiment. After all, WR analysis typically comes down to the following four factors:

  • Talent: Whether it's draft capital, advanced metrics, or the good ole eye test: McMillan checks this box.
  • Opportunity:  Our Fantasy Life projections have T-Mac earning the position's 13th-most targets (126)—and honestly, that number feels low.
  • Age/injury: McMillan turned 23 in April, which is the age that we start seeing wide receivers begin peaking in fantasy land.
  • QB play: This is the one factor that isn't ideal, but then again, there's potential for Young to improve, and we'd be looking at a likely top-10 WR ADP if this were indeed more of a certainty.

On the one hand, is T-Mac's profile THAT much different than guys like Drake London (WR7, pick 19.1) or Nico Collins (WR10, 24)? On the other hand, should McMillan really be prioritized ahead of guys like Zay Flowers, Emeka Egbuka or Ladd McConkey? They have similar target ceilings in offenses led by far superior QBs.

Ultimately, I tend to lean more toward the former optimistic scenario. We're looking at a potentially special WR talent entering Year 2 in an offense where he could pretty easily be the engine of it. There's 150+ target upside here! Not too shabby of a Round 3-4 turn bet, especially considering that's about the point in drafts where we start getting running backs with major injury questions like Cam Skattebo and Bucky Irving.

Also note: As a PROUD Cokehead: Jalen Coker does a lot of good things on the football field. The 24-year-old former UDFA might have only 872 receiving yards to his name through two seasons, but some of the efficiency numbers—namely yards per target (10, 5th among 87 qualified WRs over the last two seasons)—paint the picture of someone who could be capable of bigger and better things with more opportunity. This passing game is obviously expected to flow through McMillan first and foremost, but we did see Coker flash the ability to demand plenty of targets down the stretch of 2025, namely when he went 9-134-1 on 12 targets in the Wild Card Round. It's tough to envision too high of heights here without an injury to T-Mac, but I'm cool with throwing the occasional late-round dart at the current WR55 in ADP, even if generally I do prefer guys like Malik Willis and late-round tight ends like Dalton Kincaid and Isaiah Likely at that point in drafts. … Remember that cool yards per target stat for Coker? Well, Legette's average of 5.7 yards per target ranks 85th among 87 qualified receivers. It seems like a matter of when, not if, third-round rookie Chris Brazzell takes the former first-rounder's job. Even then, it's tough to get too excited about Brazzell's re-draft upside as the third banana in an offense not exactly expected to light up the scoreboard on a weekly basis. While it's a bit unfair to simply write off Brazzell as another Tennessee bust—give the field-stretching specialist credit for earning Freshman All-American honors at Tulane and for racking up the second-most receiving yards in the SEC in 2025—he's at least one injury away from having any sort of trustable volume in fantasy land.

Is there anyone in this tight end room fantasy managers should overly care about?

Not really! Canales has made a habit of rotating all parties involved when each are healthy enough to suit up, consistently rendering Tommy Tremble, Ja'Tavion Sanders and Mitchell Evans alike as non-viable fantasy assets. There might be some spot-start appeal when one or two parties are forced out of action with injury, but even then it's probably wishful thinking for any tight end to put up fantasy goodness in an offense that ranks 29th in targets to the position under Canales.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Tetairoa McMillan
    TetairoaMcMillanQ
    WRCARCAR
    PPG
    10.4
    Proj
    185.5

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