Meet Tetairoa McMillan, the Carolina Panthers’ first pick in 2025 NFL Draft (2025)

The Carolina Panthers stayed at the No. 8 pick on Thursday evening and used that selection to beef up their offense.

The Panthers took wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan with their first-round pick, sticking with the Top 10 prospect despite the encircling rumors that they’d try to trade back in the 2025 NFL Draft to gain more draft picks.

Here are five things you should know about Carolina’s first-round pick.

1. Tetairoa McMillan is a bit of a surprise pick

Pretty much as far back as the NFL Scouting Combine in February, the Panthers have been linked to defensive playmakers in the draft, from Mason Graham to Jalon Walker. Nationally and locally.

On Thursday, though, the Panthers opted to provide another playmaker for third-year quarterback Bryce Young in McMillan — the 6-foot-4, 219-pound receiver out of Arizona.

General manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales told reporters after the selection that the path to pick McMillan was clear after the Cleveland Browns selected defensive lineman Mason Graham with the fifth pick. The front office folks needed to “trust their board” and select who they thought the best prospect was as opposed to attacking specific needs — something they did a lot during free agency, where they invested most of their resources in the defensive front.

Canales and Morgan said they fell in love with McMillan every time they saw him, which included a “Top-30” visit this spring. They enjoyed him on and off the field — Canales and McMillan connected over their shared background in California, for instance.

2. McMillan and Bryce Young have ... a history

Canales told reporters after the pick Thursday that he communicated with his starting quarterback — and that Young was “fired up” about the pick. It’s not hard to see why.

Before his playmaking was on display at Arizona, McMillan tore it up on the high school scene at Servite High School in Southern California. Servite was a rival high school of Mater Dei, where Young broke so many records during his own high school days.

What McMillan remembers about Young:

“The first thing I remember about Bryce is, he whooped us his senior year on national television by 45 points,” McMillan said with a smile Thursday night. “But man, I always saw him growing up. He was that dude in the eighth grade. ... He went to Cathedral. Was a guy. Transferred to Mater Dei. Finished as the No. 1 quarterback and No. 1 player in the country in 2020. Won the Heisman in college.

“I mean, he’s literally been the best player at each level of the game. And I’ve always wanted to be a part of something like that.”

McMillan added that Young “sat on the table” for him — meaning that Young advocated to the front office to select McMillan. That meant a lot to McMillan because Young is “one of the best players I’ve ever seen in my life.” He added that he thinks Young will “explode” this year “and he’s so excited to be a part of it.”

3. McMillan enters a wide receiver room the team already likes

The Panthers had a lot of teams “sniffing around” in regards to the interest in moving up to the No. 8 pick in the draft. (Carolina was reportedly open to the idea of moving back.)

And after the Cleveland Browns took Mason Graham at No. 5, Canales said he and the rest of the front office members held their collective breath to ensure that McMillan would fall to them. And he did.

McMillan joins a wide receiver room that includes Xavier Legette (last year’s first-round draft pick), Adam Thielen, David Moore and Jalen Coker (an undrafted rookie a year ago). This is a group Canales praised during the offseason.

McMillan and Legette notably share similar attributes as wide receivers. Legette was compared ad nauseam to DK Metcalf last year, and McMillan has similar size and strength. McMillan didn’t go through drills at the NFL Scouting Combine in February but hosted a private workout for teams in the draft process and reportedly notched a 4.48-second 40 time.

McMillan said even though he was a Top 10 pick, he will come to Carolina with “an open mind.” He said he is willing and capable of playing anywhere — whether it’s the F, X or Z — and that his versatility is underrated.

4. McMillan is proud of his Polynesian culture

McMillan and his family wore lei necklaces in Green Bay on Thursday. This is the latest showing of their pride in Polynesian culture at the NFL Draft. McMillan was born in Waimanalo, Hawaii, before moving to California in elementary school.

McMillan became the sixth Hawaii-born player selected in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, following Chris Naeole (1997), Tyson Alualu (2010), Marcus Mariota (2015), DeForest Buckner (2016) and Tua Tagovailoa (2020).

Another stat: McMillan represents the first Arizona Wildcat to be selected by the Carolina Panthers in the team’s 30-plus years as an NFL franchise, per Pro Football Reference. (It’s not as notable of a statistic as the Panthers’ lack of Clemson draftees — particularly with Clemson a two-hour drive south of Charlotte — but it’s franchise history nonetheless.)

“Shout out to my grandma for making these leis,” McMillan said. “Everybody in the green room had them on. We’ve done something that’s never been done. We put the lei on the commissioner. So hopefully we can start a new trend.”

5. Let’s get this straight ... he’s not ‘Tet’

Before his first virtual press conference as a Carolina Panther began, McMillan clarified something to local reporters:

He doesn’t go by “Tet,” an abbreviation of his first name. He either goes by T-Mac or Nalo.

T-Mac’s origins are self-explanatory. The name Nalo, however — which he wore in a gold chain on Thursday — was a nickname awarded to him by childhood friends and one that has stuck since.

“So it’s kind of a nickname that my friends gave me, being from Waimanalo, Hawaii, on the east side of O’ahu,” he said. “Like I said, they gave me the nickname, I kind of turned it into my own brand. Obviously I got it on my chain. I have it on my T-shirts. I kind of wanted to make it my brand. And that’s what it is.”

This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 10:44 PM.