This Panthers Player Can Wreck the Packers on Sunday

When the Green Bay Packers host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Panthers rookie receiver Tetairoa McMillan will be playing his first game at Lambeau Field. It will be his third time at the historic stadium, though.

“I was fortunate in that the draft this past year was at that stadium, so I was fortunate enough to be over there,” McMillan said this week. “So, going back, that’s going to be a blessing, for sure.”

The Packers brought in several top receivers for visits before this year’s draft. One of them was McMillan, who has become an instant standout and could be the Panthers’ game-wrecker on Sunday.

“Yeah, Tet, he’s a baller,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “He is a really good football player. We knew that he was probably going to be a really good football player coming out of the draft.

“The one thing that you really like about him is his ability to run through a ball and, when he gets it in his hands, you can see the mindset is to go score. He’s really developing and going to be a really good player for a long time.”

As the eighth pick of the draft, McMillan is living up to expectations. He has 37 catches for 512 yards and two touchdowns, all of which lead the Panthers. The 512 yards rank 13th in the NFL heading into this weekend’s games.

Among this year’s rookies, he is first in receptions and first downs, second in yards and tied for third in touchdowns. He’s battling Tampa Bay’s Emeka Egbuka, who is second in receptions (34) and first downs (21) and first in yards (562) and touchdowns (five) to be the top rookie receiver.

While McMillan is a good route runner with 4.48 speed and good hands, he has one thing that hard work and good coaching can’t give you, and that is size. At 6-foot-4 1/8 and 219 pounds with a wingspan of almost 6-foot-6, he has a huge catch radius.

On top of his size and skill, McMillan is this week’s game-wrecker for the sheer number of times they get him the ball. He is leading the Panthers in targets by a long shot with 63. With 34 targets, last year’s first-round pick, Xavier Legette, is the only other Panthers player with more than 30.

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys. | Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images

McMillan has as many catches as the next two players, Legette (19) and tight end Tommy Tremble (18), combined. He has almost as many yards as the next four players, Legette (159), Tremble (130), running back Rico Dowdle (121) and running back Chuba Hubbard (118).

After the catch, he may not be to the level of a player like Tucker Kraft, but McMillan has shown some flashes of being a solid run-after-catch option, with 151 yards after the catch and five missed tackles.

With his huge frame and contested-catch ability, McMillan has proven to be a reliable target downfield. He has recorded nine explosive plays this season, which are defined as a passing play that exceeds 20 yards. That ranks sixth in the league. He’s tied for fifth with 13 receptions on passes thrown 10 to 19 yards downfield, according to PFF.

McMillan could be a tough matchup for a Packers secondary that doesn’t have a lot of size.

According to PFF, McMillan has played 244 snaps at left wide receiver, 170 snaps at right wide receiver and 71 snaps in the slot. That means he’ll challenge everyone. When he’s at left wide receiver, that probably will mean a matchup against Carrington Valentine, who replaced Nate Hobbs last week, though Hobbs’ physicality could get him on the field.

When he’s at right wide receiver, that will mean a matchup against Keisean Nixon, who is second in the NFL with 11 passes defensed but has allowed a touchdown in three consecutive games and has more penalties than any other defensive player. Last week against the Steelers, he was charged with four catches on five targets for 59 yards, including a 45-yard catch. It all added up to a 155.4 passer rating against, his worst of the season, according to PFF.

Putting it all together, McMillan has the skills, the physical tools and the volume share to make a big impact against the Packers secondary. He could tear the Packers up downfield if the pass rush can’t impact Bryce Young.

“We want to win as much games as we possibly can,” McMillan said. “We’re at .500 right now, but I feel like there’s a lot of games that we left out there, that we should have won.”

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