2025 NFL Draft Summer Scouting Report: Tetairoa McMillan

Background

Arizona Wildcats' wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan was a 4 star recruit out of Servite High School in Anaheim, Californial, per 247 sports. He was ranked 37th nationally in the 2022 class and 4th among wide receivers. He was also a highly successful basketball and volleyball player in high school before committing to football in his junior year. During his freshman season in Tucson, he gained 702 yards on 39 receptions - eight of which were for scores. He made a leap in a big way as a sophomore, leading Arizona to a 10-3 season with nearly 1,400 receiving yards in the final year of the PAC-12. Entering his second collegiate season with high school teammate Noah Fifita as his quarterback, McMillan will look to terrorize defensive backs in the Big 12.

Strengths

Imposing Frame and Athletic Profile: McMillan's 6'5", 210-pound frame is a throwback build not seen much among the top receivers drafted in recent years. He projects as a true X receiver with the catch radius and strength to prove it. He is a ball-winning maniac who competes at the catch point not only with size, but with tremendous explosive jumping ability and body control. He uses his reach to full capacity in the middle of the field, easily walling off defenders from receiving lanes. He's the type of player who's open, even when he's not.

Additionally, McMillan is equipped with very good long speed, flexibility and foot quickness. Which allow him to create space especially well for a player of his stature.

Nuanced Separator: Tetairoa is a far better route runner than most players his age. He's incredibly well controlled in his route tree, utilizing properly timed and effective fakes to instill hesitation in his defenders. In combination with his physical dominance at the top of routes, he is awfully difficult to stay in phase with in the intermediate and short areas of the field.

McMillan's size by itself allows him to get off press with relative ease against college corners. Even still, he is already stocked with a diverse bag of releases to use against the better bump and run players that he'll face at the collegiate level.

Underrated Playmaker: Possibly the most underrated aspect of McMillan's game is his ability to extend plays with the ball in his hands. He is extremely quick to turn up field post reception, showing off his explosive ability with his first few steps. The Wildcat receiver is surprisingly shifty for a player his size, allowing him to force 13 missed tackles in 2023. He will earn designed touches at the next level with his vision and utilization of blockers, regularly turning screens into chunk plays.

Players with McMillan's size thresholds are often dropped into specific buckets; whether that's possession receiver or contested catch player or another coined form of receiver jargon. However, if he's able to consistently make plays after the catch like he did in 2023, I expect it to be difficult to deem him anything short of a complete offensive weapon.

Weaknesses

Limited Vertical Threat: Tetairoa has all of the speed, size and ability to regularly separate down the field on vertical routes, but I believe there are still a few question marks waiting to be answered in this area for the upcoming season. He struggled to stack corners effectively working down the sideline, which allowed them to stay in phase and make plays on him at the catch point. With his physical prowess, I would expect his strength to win out more times than not going forward. Similarly, there were some real inconsistencies in his ability to track the football smoothly down field. Winning in the deep third is an incredibly important box to have checked as a number one option in an NFL that's prioritizing explosive plays more and more each year. While these issues are certainly fixable, it will be important to see him make these improvements in his final collegiate campaign.

Summary

Tetairoa McMillan will likely be battling Mizzou's Luther Burden III for the number one receiver spot in next year's draft. McMillan has a rare size, speed and skill combination that is hard to find. He made a tremendous jump from his freshman to sophomore season and if he's able to do that again this year, we may be looking at an archetype of pass catcher we've yet to see since Texas A&M's Mike Evans in 2013. In any case though, it feels pretty easy to say that we will see Tetairoa taken in the first round next April.