To no surprise, Tetairoa McMillan will turn pro this spring. The junior wideout has declared for the 2025 NFL draft as expected. 
McMillan enjoyed a stellar career at Arizona, and his receiving yardage total (3,423) marks the school’s all-time record. He posted 1,319 yards and eight touchdowns on 84 catches in 2024, essentially a duplication of last year’s output. His production made him a strong candidate for the Biletnikoff Award (given to the country’s top receiver), although that honor went to Colorado’s Travis Hunter.
Still, McMillan was named a first-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association, in addition to first-team All-Conference honors. The 6-5, 212-pounder confirmed his status as one of the top receiving prospects in the country over the course of the 2024 campaign, and it comes as no surprise he has elected to turn pro at the first opportunity to do so. McMillan will not need to wait long to hear his name called.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper ranks McMillan as the No. 2 receiver prospect in this year’s class (behind only Hunter), placing him 11th overall. It remains to be seen if Hunter will be used as a wideout, a corner or both at the NFL level, but in terms of players who strictly fit the WR description McMillan could easily find himself as the top player selected. Any number of NFL teams could use an infusion of size and productivity at the position.
Missouri standout Luther Burden III has also declared for the draft as expected, and he is another Day 1 candidate at the receiver spot. His size and profile is much different to McMillan’s, and NFL teams may establish a preference of one over the other during the pre-draft process. In any case, both playmakers will face considerable expectations at the NFL level in 2025.
The Patriots badly need offensive line help, but man this would be an enticing pick for them—and a lot of other teams. Only so many receivers come along with this build and actual ability to play the position.
Hunter could conceivably play either position, but not conceivably both. Outside of a few snaps at the opposite position, no NFL team is going to gamble on having a player that exposed to injury in the professional leagues. My feeling is that he’ll end up as a wideout, but if he doesn’t, than McMillan could very easily end up the top receiver off the board.
The thing that McMillan has over both of these guys is size. Teams looking for a boundary receiver should look his way. Burden is exceptionally talented, but could work underneath more than McMillan does. Both players are talented enough to move around, but that size should be a boon to a team lacking it on the boundary.
I’m thinkin Hunter is a full time cb and they give him a handful of plays at wr like 8 to 10 depending on flow or less if he wants to be a returner.
What pays more, CB or WR? That’s the direction Hunter will play.
What pays more is doing what you do best. If Hunter is a shutdown corner but more of a #3 WR then he should play corner despite WR contracts being bigger than CB contracts for example. Personally if I were Hunter, or one of his coaches, I’d play him on defense. Corners with that level of awareness and ball skills are exceptionally rare but there’s a handful of wideouts that go pro every year that can match his offensive production, most likely including the guy who this article is about.
That’s a fair sentiment, jimmyz. I agree with that.
My moneys on chargers patriots or titans to make up for taking Burks lmao
I wouldn’t be surprised if McMillan ends up a top 5 pick, definitely top 10. There aren’t really any OT’s or Edge rushers projected to be that high and most likely only Shedeur and Cam Ward are top 10 qb’s.
In the early stages of the pre-draft process it kinda seems like there’s a lot of good players but very few great ones. Probably not as steep of a drop in talent from a mid-first rounder to a mid-third rounder relative to most draft classes in my opinion. The overall ceiling of the class seems underwhelming.
That seems true to me, too. The only tackle that I can think of with a high enough projection to go top five is probably LSU’s Campbell. I can’t say that I can think of any can’t miss prospects, outside of Jeanty and those who are intrigued by Hunter’s dual potential (both of whom will have level of competition concerns).
Penn State’s Carter, Michigan’s Graham, and Georgia’s edge rusher whose name escapes me are probably the other contenders to go top five, and all are from traditional Power 5 big schools. The player that could mess up Hunter’s spot as the top corner would be Michigan’s Johnson, who has more size and the advantage of playing in the Big 10. To me, he’s a better pure corner for that reason, but you obviously can’t argue Hunter’s ball skills. I think that leaves McMillan in the top 10, but with the draft order yet to be finalized, it’s going to depend on what team needs what to shuffle around the final order.