With their need at wide receiver, a draft analyst has the Carolina Panthers taking care of that in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft.
The 2025 campaign is going to be huge for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. Young looked like his days in Carolina might be numbered last year after he was benched for veteran Andy Dalton. However, Young was able to take that in stride and later bounced back nicely following his being reinserted into the starting lineup.
With Young trending up, the Panthers can't hope for that to continue if they don't surround him with more weapons on offense. A trio of Adam Thielen, Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker simply isn't sufficient. Thielen is still playing at a pretty high level but is set to turn 35 and could rapidly decline. Meanwhile, Legette and Coker remain unproven despite showing flashes last season.
While we could see Carolina address their need via free agency or trade, it also remains a possibility that the Panthers will solve their issue in the 2025 NFL Draft.
And that's exactly what Rotoballer's Joey Sheiner has Carolina doing. He predicts the Panthers will draft Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan with the No. 8 overall pick in April.
"Enter McMillan: the 6-foot-4, 219-pound wideout was clocked at 4.48 in the 40-yard dash at his pro day," Sheiner wrote. "That confirmed what we already knew about him; the Arizona product moves exceptionally well for his size and has the skills to match. McMillan slots in as Young's top target right away and could help take his development to the next level."
McMillan has all the tools to be a superstar at the next level. He has great size (6-foot4, 219 pounds) and enough speed, whether you believe he ran a 4.48 or 4.54-4.57 at the Arizona Pro Day.
A new potential concern popped up with McMillan recently after a 2023 video surfaced of the talented wideout saying he doesn't watch football "at all" and doesn't watch film outside of team meetings.
"I don't like watching film either," McMillan said. "I don't ever need to watch it by myself because we go over it as a receiver group."
That is something the Panthers and other teams will have to weigh before taking McMillan, but we don't see that hurting his draft stock all that much.
As a result, he remains very much in play for Carolina at No. 8 overall and is someone the team should absolutely consider adding next month.
