McMillan Drafted by Husky-Friendly Bucs in Third Round

The UW receiver goes to a roster with four players from Montlake on it.

From Detroit, Jalen McMillan heard his name called out on Friday night in the third round of the NFL Draft, going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the 92nd pick overall, which seemed only right. That state owed him something.

The last time he was in Michigan eight months earlier, the University of Washington wide receiver left part of his soul on a football field in East Lansing after injuring a knee in a 41-7 victory over Michigan State. While his teammates celebrated a lopsided win on the road over a Big Ten opponent, McMillan saw his football career flash before his eyes.

The interruption in his good health cost him four Husky football games, a chance to show off his full cadre of skills at his best and maybe a number of draft slots.

Yet the 6-foot-1, 182-pound McMillan from Fresno, California, persevered by working through the discomfort and hesitation that comes with a balky knee and finishing up the season strong for the 14-1 and national runner-up Huskies. He jumped nto this NFL Draft, rather than extend his college career another season, determined to show that he was worthy of a pro football career.

McMillan became the seventh UW pick over the first three rounds, giving the Huskies a draftee for every 13 picks when he was taken, a fairly amazing number.

By joining the Bucs, the speedy receiver with 4.47 40 speed goes to a UW-friendly pro franchise, joining a former teammate in tight end Cade Otton and older ex-Huskies iwho came before him n defensive tackles Vita Vea and Greg Gaines, plus edge rusher Joe Tryon. Vea and Tryon were first-round picks for Tampa Bay, Otton was a fourth-rounder for the Bucs and Gaines entered league as a fourth-round selection for the Los Angeles Rams.

Oh, what might have been for McMillan when it came to his potential draft position pre-injury.

In 2022, McMillan, known as a superior route runner, led the Huskies in receiving by catching 79 balls for 1,098 yards and 9 scores -- which were four receptions and 2 TDS more than his highly regarded teammate Rome Odunze, a first-rounder for the Chicago Bears, and he had just 147 fewer yards than his buddy.

Sitting out or greatly limited for several UW games last season, McMillan finished with 45 catches for 559 yards and 5 touchdowns, or half of what he likely would have done had he not gone down in the first half at Spartan Stadium.

The knee feels OK now as he gets ready to run up and down pro football fields everywhere, beginning next season in Florida.

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