Tetairoa McMillan, the Carolina Panthers’ first-round draft pick, made his NFL debut on Sunday in a 26-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Despite the team’s struggles on offense, McMillan stood out with five receptions for 68 yards, leading all receivers in the game.
After the game, McMillan reflected on his performance and emphasized his desire for improvement. “Football is still football at the end of the day,” said McMillan on Monday. “Obviously, you know the league is, everybody is good, you know, the game is faster, more physical, but try not to make it bigger than it actually was.”
McMillan was critical of his own play despite posting strong numbers for a rookie debut. “It wasn’t good enough,” he stated. “That’s all I can say. Yeah, I made some plays, but at the end of the day, I wanted to win, so I didn’t do enough to make sure that happened.”
He took responsibility for missing a potential touchdown late in the third quarter when a pass from quarterback Bryce Young fell incomplete after contact from Jacksonville’s Tyson Campbell. “That’s just me,” McMillan said. “Opportunity came my way. I just got to go out there and make a play. Still a good ball, so I got to come down with it…I feel like that’s a routine catch for me…that’s something that I got to make, and next time the opportunity comes, I’m going to make it.
“I definitely could’ve got two hands on it. I just feel like I should’ve approached that better than I did…now I realize that, looking over today, I realized what I should have done better in that moment…”
Another missed connection came when Young released a quick pass while McMillan was running an inside route with his head turned away from the ball. “I’ll just get my head around quicker,” promised McMillan. “Really, just always make sure I’m in the right spot when I’m supposed to be there…So just got to get my head around and catch the ball.”
Despite these moments, McMillan’s five catches put him third on Carolina’s all-time list for rookie receiver debuts behind Muhsin Muhammad (96 yards) and Kelvin Benjamin (92). He also posted more receiving yards than any other NFL rookie receiver during opening weekend.
Looking at recent history since 2015—when 14 wide receivers were selected in the top 10 picks of their drafts—only four had more receiving yards than McMillan in their first game: Drake London (74), Ja’Marr Chase (101), DeVonta Smith (71), and Corey Davis (69). Three others had six receptions in their debut games: Travis Hunter this year with Jacksonville; DeVonta Smith; and Corey Davis.
Two additional receptions by McMillan—a 16-yarder negated by penalty and another wiped out due to defensive pass interference—would have given him seven catches for 106 yards if they had counted.
“If you ask me if I caught it, yeah, I caught that,” he smiled.
McMillan credited both coaching preparation and competition from teammates as factors helping him adapt quickly: “I feel like this whole week…the coaches did a good job of just explaining…it’s everything that we expected,” shared McMillan.
“And…I’m confident in my preparation…the DB corp on our team has been pushing me to make sure that I’m ready for anything…”
Head coach Dave Canales commented positively on McMillan’s debut: “I thought he played fast, I thought he looked very comfortable out there one-on-one outside. We moved him around a little bit…He and Bryce were on the same page timing-wise…”
“I’d love for him to come up with a big touchdown in the end zone…but he ran a beautiful route on it…he really gave us a chance…”
For now though individual stats are secondary as far as McMillan is concerned: “I mean it’s cool…at the end of day…everybody on team wants win games…whether it’s doing that or—you know…I should have done more…I should’ve had that catch…”
“The beautiful thing about it is we get to come in today and go over what we did wrong…and we just get better as days go on…”
