Sikkema: Why Tetairoa McMillan is still my WR1 in the 2025 NFL Draft

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• The Arizona product wins like a WR1: PFF’s No. 3 overall player has size and contested-catch ability that stand out on tape, making him Trevor Sikkema’s top 2025 NFL Draft wide receiver product.

• McMillan’s separation rates aren’t as poor as some suggest: His 62.0% separation percentage against single coverage in 2024 ranked in the 62nd percentile.

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Some believe the NFL draft process is too long, and those who do are likely talking about the final days and weeks leading up to the draft when overanalyzing prospects, specifically the top ones, becomes the norm.

This year is no different, and the prospect who seems to have caught the most criticism over the past few weeks, and even going back to the NFL Scouting Combine, is Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

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McMillan sits at the top of my wide receiver rankings as the best pass catcher in the 2025 NFL Draft (including some great tight ends). In fact, he is the No. 3 player overall, after Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter at Nos. 1 and 2. But why? Why am I still holding onto McMillan as not only the top receiver but a top-five overall player when the consensus seems to have him outside of the top 10?

First, I love McMillan’s size. His combine measurements of over 6-foot-4 and 219 pounds with 10-inch hands are all above the 85th percentile for the position. His 31 1/2-inch arm length places him in just the 38th percentile, but his nearly 78-inch wingspan is in the 65th percentile. And those measurements aren’t just numbers on a page.

I could have told you McMillan had superior size by watching his tape and seeing how he wins. Though contested catches aren’t classified as a stable metric, his 54.7% contested-catch percentage over the past two years ranked in the 86th percentile for the position. So, McMillan checks the box of a big-bodied X receiver who shines in contested situations.

For as much flak as he receives for not being a top-tier separator and release artist at the line of scrimmage, his 53.6% separation percentage against single coverage over the past two years was still a 39th-percentile mark, which isn’t bad for a big receiver. And if you look just at 2024, his 62.0% separation percentage against single coverage ranked in the 62nd percentile — evidence of a true junior receiver who is an ascending player, even in categories that aren’t as naturally dominant for him.

Then there’s the yards-after-catch component, the one many like to point to as a major weakness of McMillan’s game. He averaged 5.1 yards after the catch per reception in 2024, placing in just the 38th percentile for the position — but that is expected, given who he is as a receiver. Encouragingly, that number is similar to that of Drake London’s final two years at USC, when he averaged a similar 5.3 number. And that has since lowered to 3.1 over London’s past two years in the NFL.

McMillan’s after-the-catch production is also much better than former prospects such as Courtland Sutton, who clocked a 4.5-yard average in his final two years at SMU and a 2.5-yard mark in his past two years with the Broncos. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ Mike Evans, for example, has averaged 3.1 yards after the catch per reception for his career. So, even if we expected McMillan’s post-catch numbers to dip, they aren’t far off from the NFL’s notable big receivers; it’s not like he’s a last-percentile YAC player in athletic ability and playmaker mentality.

I am also in on how McMillan wins in the red zone. Over the past two years, he earned an 80.9 PFF receiving grade in the red zone, seeing 29 targets in that range and catching 11 touchdowns. He hauled in eight of his 15 contested red-zone targets — good for a 53.3% clip that would have ranked 12th in the NFL over the past two seasons.

McMillan doesn’t run the sharpest routes. He isn’t the quickest receiver (though I would argue he’s quick for a big man). He also isn’t as proficient against press with a variety of releases the way you’d like him to be in the future. But McMillan is just 22 years old, coming off his third year of college ball — his second as a starter — with nearly 3,000 receiving yards during those two seasons. He has plenty of room and time to grow. His current abilities and talents are already worthy of a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

This news was originally published on this post .

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