Arizona star receiver Tetairoa McMillan addresses the media Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine. Despite questions about his speed, McMillan is projected to be a high draft pick. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS – Two years ago, the Arizona Wildcats completed a promising football season in the Alamo Bowl. The hope was to build on that two-touchdown win over Oklahoma.
However, that goal quickly faced challenges when then-Wildcats coach Jedd Fisch took a job in the Pacific Northwest with the Washington Huskies.
There was fear that many players in the Wildcats football program might follow Fisch or transfer to other programs. Some did, but to the surprise of many, receiver Tetairoa McMillan decided to stay put in Tucson to continue playing with his former high school teammate, quarterback Noah Fifita.
“That’s my dog, man,” McMillan said Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he met with reporters but did not take part in drills. He is expected to be a first-round pick and potentially the first receiver taken in the upcoming draft.
“He’s my best friend, and I’ve been catching a touchdown from him for the last eight years. Not many people can say they caught a ball from who they played with in youth, high school, and college… Being able to play with him, it’s a blessing, and I’m glad I stayed another year with my dog.”
McMillan’s draft status is mirroring Arizona’s 2024 season – cooling off after a hot start.
McMillan couldn’t have been hotter at the start of last season, hauling in 10 passes from Fifita in Arizona’s season opener against New Mexico for 304 yards and four touchdowns – picking up right where he left off against the Sooners in the Alamo Bowl, when he grabbed 10 passes for 160 yards.
The 304-yard performance broke a 28-year-old Wildcats record for receiving yards in a game and the four touchdowns tied the school mark.
That big game helped Arizona to a hot 3-1 start, but not much went right after that for the Wildcats or McMillan. Arizona finished a 4-8 record in coach Brent Brennan’s first season.
However, the disappointing season didn’t dim McMillan’s hopes of playing in the NFL and going high in the upcoming draft.
At 6-feet-5, 212 pounds, McMillan is a tall, lengthy receiver who can go up and get the ball and make tough catches. It’s a skill set that earned him a ranking as the No. 14 overall prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft in NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah’s second Top 50 list.
At the beginning of “draft season,” Jeremiah had him going No. 8 to the Carolina Panthers in his first mock draft. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. had McMillan picked at No. 6 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Fast-forward to the week of the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, each analyst released a mock before the event began. Jeremiah had him going No. 19 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Kiper Jr. had him going No. 22 overall to the Los Angeles Chargers – the same love wasn’t there anymore.
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan hopes to prove his value to NFL scouts and teams at his upcoming pro day. (Photo courtesy of Gilbert Alcaraz/AllSportsTucson)
“These big receivers, are they making contested catches because they’re forced in those situations or are they making contested catches because they can’t get because they can’t get open,” NFL draft analyst Jaime Eisner said in a sit-down interview. “If you can’t get open in college, you’re not going to get open in the NFL.”
It’s an intriguing question for scouts. McMillan possesses the measurements to be a premier receiver in the league, but he believes that scouts still aren’t respecting aspects of his game.
“People look at me like a big receiver, which I am, but I’m able to run every route in the route tree and play inside or outside, and I feel like many teams are sleeping on that right now,” McMillan said.
With a tall receiver who can run routes and make every catch, what is the question mark about him as a prospect? His production at Arizona wasn’t lacking, recording 1,300 receiving yards in each of the past two years.
McMillan’s primary concern is that he doesn’t showcase top-end speed on tape. Indianapolis was a chance to prove scouts wrong, but it’s a double-edged sword.
“So (McMillan is) a guy I think has a lot to lose this week,” NFL Draft analyst EJ Synder said. “People love to watch here at the underwear Olympics (NFL Combine) how fast people run and how high they jump, and he has a real liability in the fact that if he runs as slow as some people are guessing.
“Now everybody knew that he was not a burner on tape. But there’s slow, and there’s, ‘Oh, only 5-to-7% of guys with this level of speed have ever succeeded at very high levels in the league.’ Those are the kinds of things that scare general managers and make them very risk-averse.
“So if he runs, let’s say, a medium time; if he runs a 4.65 (second 40-yard sprint), or a 4.67, even, he’s probably okay, because of all those other things. If he runs a 4.62, it’s going to be a plus. Scouts are going to look down and go, ‘I didn’t think he had that.’ If he runs a 4.72, it puts him in historically bad territory.”
On Saturday afternoon, questions among the front offices would be answered as the wide receivers participated in Lucas Oil Stadium drills. The stock of McMillan could have gone up or down, but during his media availability, he confirmed he would not participate in any Indianapolis events.
He answered a reporter’s question about participating with a simple, “No sir.”
Instead, scouts and analysts must wait until the Big 12 Conference Pro Day in Frisco, Texas, on Mar. 18-21. The event holds importance for McMillan, but for now, all he can do is sit back and watch.
“You don’t ever want to hear other coaches or teams that you potentially want to play for talk bad about you,” McMillan said about teams criticizing him. “But at the end of the day, it’s their job to find pros and cons in my game, and it’s a business decision for them, and I get it.”
With “draft season,” things are ever-changing as teams and front offices dig deeper into this class. Running backs and defensive linemen are the main attraction for the 2025 NFL Draft class. It is not considered a strong draft for wide receivers, which could benefit McMillan.
The development of team boards will evolve until draft night. While McMillan’s speed is a question mark for teams; it may not be the sole reason why his name has slipped in some mock drafts.
“I think it’s more about other guys passing him at different positions, and it’s him falling,” Eisner said. “I would be stunned if another receiver gets drafted before him. … he does clearly look like the Wide Receiver One in this class.”
Raiders general manager John Spytek noted that teams tend to follow their draft boards rather than make selections based on a positional need.
“We’re not going to pass on elite talent because we may have a couple of (players in that position already), but we’re certainly not going to just force picks because we (have a hole to fill), whether the public thinks that or we think that,” Spytek said at the combine. “If you just draft for a need, you will draft guys way too early, and you’ll regret it, and you’ll watch other guys that you … may have wished you took in a different position have great careers.”
An advantage McMillan possesses in this day and age of college football is having the ability to hire an agent, who can help filter out the pre-draft noise that every player is subjected to on social media.
The draft coverage is more online than ever – just a simple web search of “Tetairoa McMillan” produces millions of opinions about him as a prospect. Athletes now see the rankings; they see the mock drafts and know what everyone is saying about them.
A good agent can address those concerns.
“Depending on your agent, they will have connections within the league,” Eisner said. “They will have connections with scouts and whatnot. And scouts will be pretty open about just telling you. Not (as open as saying), ‘Oh yeah, we’re picking you,’ necessarily, but like, ‘What kind of grade do we have on you?’ And so if you’re hearing from your league sources that we talked to five teams, (and) they all have a first-round grade on you, or you’re atop their wide receiver board.”
McMillan was the highest recruit ever for Arizona, and he leaves a legacy behind in Tucson. Regardless of the speed concerns, he’s considered a red-zone target who can give NFL defensive backs trouble.
So he only cares about what one person has to say – and that will be on draft night.
“I’m just looking forward to my name being called in April,” McMillan said.