The race for WR1 in the 2025 NFL Draft cycle is close, but with his dominant skill set, Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan has what it takes to take home the crown.
What makes McMillan such an exciting prospect, and what allows him to make plays at such a high clip? His 2025 NFL Draft scouting report holds the answers.
Tetairoa McMillan’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’5″
- Weight: 210 pounds
- Position: Wide Receiver
- School: Arizona
- Current Year: Junior
Born in Waimānalo, Hawaii, McMillan played football at Servite High School in Anaheim, California, where his gifts quickly drew the spotlight. As a senior, he caught 88 passes for 1,302 yards and 18 touchdowns, earning high four-star and fringe five-star appeal.
An All-American Bowl attendee and the Polynesian Football Player of the Year, McMillan fielded interest from many highly regarded programs, but he chose to join the Wildcats under Jedd Fisch.
In doing so, McMillan became Arizona’s highest-rated signing ever. He was also able to reunite with his good friend and high school QB, Noah Fifita.
From that point onward, McMillan — known colloquially as “T-Mac” — has done nothing but confirm his recruitment billing and pedigree.
As a true freshman, McMillan caught 39 passes for 702 yards and eight scores. As a sophomore, he caught 90 passes for 1,402 yards and 10 touchdowns and was a second-team All-Pac-12 honoree. Thus far, in 2024, he’s been as dominant as we’ve seen him — a scary thought.
In Arizona’s very first game of the 2024 campaign against New Mexico, McMillan put together a 2016 Julio Jones-esque performance, racking up 10 catches for 304 yards and four touchdowns. That kind of domination is often reserved only for early-round talents.
That’s the kind of talent McMillan is: The talent who can take over a game at a moment’s notice.
There’s simply no ignoring McMillan on the 2025 NFL Draft stage. But just how high could he come off the board?
McMillan’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Tall, lean, and streamlined receiving threat who can box out and outreach defenders.
- Easy accelerator with great explosive capacity and energetic motion for his size.
- Has the curvilinear acceleration to bend through route breaks while keeping speed.
- Has the long-strider speed to chew up space and threaten defenses vertically.
- Possesses stellar feel for positioning and uses his size to control that positioning.
- Has the body control, vertical athleticism, and contortion to make acrobatic catches.
- Can make high-difficulty, acrobatic catches with body control and contortion ability.
- Able to sequence successive route breaks off split releases, using hips to his advantage.
- Flashes impressive angle freedom and twitch on first-level and second-level releases.
- Has the hip flexibility to roll his hips and adjust his track after off-setting defenders.
- Actively uses smooth vertical athleticism to manipulate coverage angles and blind spots.
- Can effectively use his length to pry through contact at stems and keep himself clean.
- Explosion, agility, fluidity, speed, and grating play strength are all conducive to RAC.
- Has unique alignment versatility for his size, with boundary, slot, and motion utility.
- High-effort run blocker whose size and quickness can overwhelm defenders.
Weaknesses
- Doesn’t have elite hip sink on comebacks and sometimes plays too tall on breaks.
- Similarly, plays too tall into stems at times, failing to adequately press DBs upfield.
- Speed, while great, is not elite, as he struggles to sustain separation on crossers.
- At times, can better sync up footwork on jab-step and euro moves to avoid waste.
- On occasion, can be inconsistent with route pacing and tempo-threatening stems.
- Can sometimes be overreliant on physicality during the second leg of routes.
- Has room to keep expanding his route tree and employ sharper breaks upfield.
- Prone to occasional hesitation and focus drops over the middle of the field.
- Focus and hand placement can be obstructed by physicality in the deep third.
- Occasionally plays blocks too patiently or takes faulty angles, losing positioning.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, McMillan grades out as a mid-first-round prospect. He’s a definite Round 1 candidate and a contender for the WR1 mantle, along with Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Missouri’s Luther Burden III. The blue-chip tier is within McMillan’s reach.
Just a year after we had several uncommon size-speed athletes at the WR position, McMillan looks like another potential unicorn in the making. Despite being 6’5″ and 210 pounds, some of McMillan’s calling cards are his burst, speed, quickness, and flexibility.
Even more impressive, however, is how McMillan uses his physical tools to his advantage. As a route runner, he’s shown to use his speed and hip flexibility to modulate spacing and get open. And he quietly has good run-after-catch ability with his slippery mobility.
That said, the best part of McMillan’s game is his ability at the catch point. While there are occasional aberrations with his hand positioning, he excels at boxing out defenders with his frame and playing positioning and has the reach and body control to make plays from anywhere.
There are still areas in which McMillan can improve. Dealing with physicality can be an issue at times, and as is often the case with younger players, there are still ways he can refine his route running. All this aside, McMillan has WR1 and blue-chip potential.
McMillan’s early performance in 2024 has been very promising, and there’ll be plenty more opportunities to come in the Big 12 conference. McMillan has the size-athleticism combination to separate himself from Hunter and Burden, and if he can stay consistent, he can ride that combination to a WR1 title.