What Jalen McMillan Does for the Buccaneers

A deep receiver class yields a talent prospect for the Bucs.

The Buccaneers found another weapon for Baker Mayfield by drafting Washington wide receiver Jalen McMillan with the 92nd overall pick.

First off, let’s address the most important fact…I GOT A MOCK DRAFT PICK CORRECT. Mock drafts are a fickle and often futile exercise, so I’m going to take my little victory lap on a third-round pick who simply made great sense for the Bucs.

McMillan should slot in immediately as the team’s co-WR3 with 2023 pick Trey Palmer, and there should be optimism for his ceiling moving forward. We’ll do a quick look at the latest name in the Washington-to-Tampa pipeline.

Jalen McMillan Career Stats

McMillan, a four-star recruit, parlayed a No. 67 overall recruit ranking (and No. 1 in Washington’s 2020 class) into a long, fairly successful career with the Huskies. After redshirting his freshman year, he started 9 games in 2021 before breaking out with Michael Penix, Jr. (now a sworn enemy) in 2022, putting up 1,098 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Sadly, injuries cost him 4 games, and the emergence of Rome Odunze and Ja’Lynn Polk bumped him to third in the pecking order of a lethal Washington offense that came within one game of a National Championship. That said, McMillan still tallied 45 receptions for 559 yards and 5 total touchdowns.

His career totals in 38 games (23 starts) amounted to 2,143 yards and 17 touchdowns on 164 catches.

Athletic Testing

McMillan is a very good athlete who showed out well with his pre-draft testing and reinforced his tape. RAS graded him out in the 13th percentile of all receiver prospects in nearly the last four decades.

Next Gen Stats graded him as a 78 athletic score, which ranked 20th among all receivers who attended the NFL Combine this year.

His unique speed profile is a good representation of his on-field performance, as McMillan is best-described as a glider who isn’t all-world fast but can accelerate enough to separate and create some YAC.

He produced some very good jobs, but he didn’t always get the chance to showcase that due to his wiry frame and less-than-ideal contested catch ability. That said, his long arms (77 1/8” wingspan) and big hands (10”) consistently did show up as someone who could expand his catch radius to haul in off-target throws.

What Type of Player Is Jalen McMillan?

I will once again state that McMillan would’ve created more buzz as a Round 2 player if not for injuries ruining his final season and having to take a backseat to Odunze and Polk (who both went in the top 40 picks) out of necessity.

He’s savvier than most other prospects with an innate understanding of how to use his body movements and footwork to set up defenders and create separation. Those are hard skills to teach, and expanding his route tree and refining release technique will only allow him to take further advantage of them.

His speed, body control and catch radius, and overall comfort with running routes to all levels and areas of field bode really well for his future success. His lithe frame will cause concern, and you’d like to see him add more bulk without losing his speed. Putting on that extra muscle could help with winning battles at the catch point, but he needs to be more aggressive in those scenarios as well.

Luckily for him, that won’t be his primary role as Tampa already has two guys who can do that. You might’ve heard of them.

The Athletic’s Dane Brugler compares McMillan to a “juiced-up Jakobi Meyers”, which feels like a spot-on comparison. For reference, Meyers has averaged nearly 800 yards per season and 70 catches over the last 4 years for the Patriots and Raiders.

Conclusion

The Bucs will now be set up well in the passing game between Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, McMillan, Palmer, Cade Otton, and Rachaad White.

Any contribution from McMillan will be valuable, but he’ll benefit from learning from two excellent role models in Evans and Godwin. Time spent in an NFL strength & conditioning program should do wonders for his frame as well.

While Godwin’s future is murky, McMillan absolutely shows the talent to be a possible heir-apparent and a future No. 2 wide receiver in the pros.

What do you think, Bucs Nation?