That was a pretty good rookie season that Tetairoa McMillan just had. Especially considering what Carolina's other recent early wideout selections have done, and the overall modest quality of the passing game.
The previous year's first-rounder, Xavier Legette, has been a drop-prone disappointment. The year before that they took Jonathan Mingo at 39th overall, which makes the Legette pick look comparatively good. Mingo is already with his second team (buried in Dallas) and hasn't yet scored an NFL touchdown. So McMillan catching 70 passes for 1,014 yards and 7 touchdowns as a rookie is pretty encouraging.
But a year 2 step up would look a lot more likely if the quarterback, and the passing game, were better.
Carolina the past three years, with Bryce Young starting most of those games, has ranked 32nd, 31st and 27th in passing. He's trending upward, so there's that, but at what point do we conclude the guy just isn't that good? Making the playoffs (with an 8-9 record) is nice, but hard to contend the team looks particularly threatening in the NFC.
And while McMillan's stats were nice, they'd probably have been better if his quarterback did a better job of getting him the ball. Just 57 percent of the passes thrown his way were completed. That was a bottom-10 figure among the 46 wideouts to see at least 75 targets a year ago, and most of the guys with worse catch rates were making more big plays downfield (Alec Pierce most notably, but only 2 of the worse players than McMillan averaged a lower yards per catch).
| WIDE RECEIVER CATCH RATES, 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Catch% |
| Stefon Diggs | 102 | 85 | 1013 | 11.9 | 4 | 83.3% |
| Puka Nacua | 166 | 129 | 1715 | 13.3 | 10 | 77.7% |
| Khalil Shakir | 95 | 72 | 719 | 10.0 | 4 | 75.8% |
| Jaxon Smith-Njigba | 163 | 119 | 1793 | 15.1 | 10 | 73.0% |
| Zay Flowers | 118 | 86 | 1211 | 14.1 | 5 | 72.9% |
| Deebo Samuel | 99 | 72 | 727 | 10.1 | 5 | 72.7% |
| Michael Pittman | 111 | 80 | 784 | 9.8 | 7 | 72.1% |
| Jakobi Meyers | 110 | 75 | 835 | 11.1 | 3 | 68.2% |
| DeVonta Smith | 113 | 77 | 1008 | 13.1 | 4 | 68.1% |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown | 172 | 117 | 1401 | 12.0 | 11 | 68.0% |
| Rashee Rice | 78 | 53 | 571 | 10.8 | 5 | 67.9% |
| George Pickens | 137 | 93 | 1429 | 15.4 | 9 | 67.9% |
| Ja'Marr Chase | 185 | 125 | 1412 | 11.3 | 8 | 67.6% |
| Keenan Allen | 122 | 81 | 777 | 9.6 | 4 | 66.4% |
| Josh Downs | 88 | 58 | 566 | 9.8 | 4 | 65.9% |
| Wan'Dale Robinson | 140 | 92 | 1014 | 11.0 | 4 | 65.7% |
| Romeo Doubs | 85 | 55 | 724 | 13.2 | 6 | 64.7% |
| A.J. Brown | 121 | 78 | 1003 | 12.9 | 7 | 64.5% |
| Rashid Shaheed | 92 | 59 | 687 | 11.6 | 2 | 64.1% |
| Chris Olave | 156 | 100 | 1163 | 11.6 | 9 | 64.1% |
| CeeDee Lamb | 117 | 75 | 1077 | 14.4 | 3 | 64.1% |
| Jaylen Waddle | 100 | 64 | 910 | 14.2 | 6 | 64.0% |
| Jameson Williams | 102 | 65 | 1117 | 17.2 | 7 | 63.7% |
| Troy Franklin | 104 | 65 | 709 | 10.9 | 6 | 62.5% |
| Ladd McConkey | 106 | 66 | 789 | 12.0 | 6 | 62.3% |
| Tre Tucker | 92 | 57 | 696 | 12.2 | 5 | 62.0% |
| Michael Wilson | 126 | 78 | 1006 | 12.9 | 7 | 61.9% |
| Jauan Jennings | 90 | 55 | 643 | 11.7 | 9 | 61.1% |
| Parker Washington | 95 | 58 | 847 | 14.6 | 5 | 61.1% |
| Drake London | 112 | 68 | 919 | 13.5 | 7 | 60.7% |
| Quentin Johnston | 84 | 51 | 735 | 14.4 | 8 | 60.7% |
| Tee Higgins | 98 | 59 | 846 | 14.3 | 11 | 60.2% |
| Courtland Sutton | 124 | 74 | 1017 | 13.7 | 7 | 59.7% |
| DK Metcalf | 99 | 59 | 850 | 14.4 | 6 | 59.6% |
| Justin Jefferson | 141 | 84 | 1048 | 12.5 | 2 | 59.6% |
| Nico Collins | 120 | 71 | 1117 | 15.7 | 6 | 59.2% |
| DJ Moore | 85 | 50 | 682 | 13.6 | 6 | 58.8% |
| Tetairoa McMillan | 122 | 70 | 1014 | 14.5 | 7 | 57.4% |
| Alec Pierce | 84 | 47 | 1003 | 21.3 | 6 | 56.0% |
| Jordan Addison | 79 | 42 | 610 | 14.5 | 3 | 53.2% |
| Brian Thomas | 91 | 48 | 707 | 14.7 | 2 | 52.7% |
| Davante Adams | 114 | 60 | 789 | 13.2 | 14 | 52.6% |
| Emeka Egbuka | 127 | 63 | 938 | 14.9 | 6 | 49.6% |
| Rome Odunze | 90 | 44 | 661 | 15.0 | 6 | 48.9% |
| Jerry Jeudy | 106 | 50 | 602 | 12.0 | 2 | 47.2% |
| Elic Ayomanor | 89 | 41 | 515 | 12.6 | 4 | 46.1% |
I'm not a Bryce Young fan, and I guess that means I'm not a McMillan fan. I think there's a decent chance Carolina will be quarterback shopping next offseason, at which point McMillan's outlook will look better.
--Andy Richardson
