Scouting Profile: Tetairoa McMillan - WR - Arizona
Sales Pitch: Tall, long WR who excels versus zone coverage and at the catch point due to tremendous ball skills and body control.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Tetairoa McMillan is a former 5-star recruit from California, the highest recruit in Arizona’s history, after starring in football, basketball and volleyball in high school. McMillan posted back to back 1,000+ yard seasons in 2023 and 2024, receiving All-Conference and All-American honors in both campaigns. He is also a Biletnikoff Finalist in 2024.
McMillan is a tall, lanky receiver who is at his best at the catch point. He has excellent body control and uses his long arms and sticky hands to attack the ball at its apex in jump ball and contested catch scenarios. He is a good athlete for his size with has nimble feet and excellent balance, which allows him to smoothly work in and out of his breaks as a route runner. While not a burner McMillan is a long strider with the build up speed to stack DBs and win down the field vertically. He most productive reps come versus zone coverage, where he uses body positioning and strong spatial awareness to create opportunities over the middle of the field. The same awareness translates as a ball carrier, where he does a good job quickly getting upfield after the catch. McMillan’s combination of size and vision led to career numbers with the ball in his hands in 2024.
McMillan’s like most bigger WR’s lacks the burst out of his stance at the line of scrimmage and displays average change of direction skills. Which means he will likely never be an above average separator at the next level, particularly versus DB’s who can match his size at the top of routes. Despite his improvements as a ball carrier McMillan does not project to be a difference maker with the ball in his hands either due his lack of explosiveness after the catch. McMillan’s speed being more of the build up variety leads to some struggles versus press coverage as he lacks the burst to quickly win off the line and aggressive DBs are able to attack his upright and thin frame to disrupt his route timing. He will need to improve his hand work and release package if he intends to live on the outside at the next level.
McMillan profiles as a starting X WR who is both scheme and alignment versatile. Teams should expect him to win primarily against zone coverage over the middle of the field where his length, ball skills and spatial awareness can shine. His best routes come off the vertical route tree, typically from the slot, where he can use his size to box out smaller defenders at the catch point. McMillan projects as a low end WR1 with room to grow if he can add mass to his frame and polish up his game.