Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan achieved a remarkable feat when he won the 2025 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award last month. The Panthers selected McMillan with their top draft pick last year, hoping to give quarterback Bryce Young a reliable target. That decision quickly paid off as McMillan became a major piece of Carolina’s resurgence last season. And recently, Panthers legend Greg Olsen also revealed what impressed him most about McMillan.

“I think it is remarkable that he [Tetairoa McMillan] ended up offensive rookie of the year and had the production of over a thousand yards and whatnot for the bulk of the season, and rightfully so,” Greg Olsen said recently on the Fitz & Whit podcast. “I thought Canales did a nice job understanding the style in which they needed to play. They might have overcommitted to running the ball, right? At the time, their defense was playing well. They were playing low-possession games.

“For that stretch in the middle of the season, it’s pretty remarkable that he [Tetairoa McMillan] was able to even have the production he ended up with when they were such 40-plus runs in the NFL,” Olsen said in disbelief. “That is a lot and not a lot of possessions, and they’re not throwing for 350 a game. So, I think it’s a pretty remarkable season, especially when you take into context the style in which they played.”

In his NFL debut, Tetairoa McMillan caught five passes for 68 yards. A week later, McMillan improved on that performance with six receptions for 100 yards. McMillan’s third game produced more modest numbers—three catches for 48 yards. But in that Week 3 game, McMillan still showed flashes of big-play ability, including a 23-yard gain on the Panthers’ opening drive that pushed them into the red zone.

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Throughout the 2025 season, Tetairoa McMillan put to use his dependable hands, polished route-running, and a towering 6-foot-5 frame to stretch the field and create explosive plays. By the end of the season, Tetairoa averaged 14.5 yards per reception during his rookie campaign. Yet Greg Olsen believes the bigger achievement lies in how McMillan produced those numbers despite limited passing opportunities in Carolina.

To illustrate that point, Olsen pointed to Carolina’s 16-13 victory over the Green Bay Packers last season. In that Week 9 game, the Panthers’ ball-control style led to Bryce Young throwing for just 102 yards. The Panthers also finished the game more than 100 total yards behind the Packers. 

Still, the Panthers won as they capitalized on their running game, with running back Rico Dowdle scoring two touchdowns on three red-zone trips. And even in that game dominated by the ground attack, McMillan recorded four catches for 46 yards. That game came during the middle of the 2025 season, when McMillan posted four straight games with at least 40 receiving yards. Even as a rookie, McMillan delivered consistently while operating in a run-first offense, which stood out to Greg Olsen.

Moreover, in 2025, while he started all 17 games and tallied 70 receptions for 1,014 yards and 7 TDs, Olsen believes that Tetairoa McMillan rightfully earned the ROTY award. McMillan’s high production also helped pace the Panthers to their first playoff appearance in seven years and secure the NFC South title. But at the same time, not everyone seems to be impressed by how Carolina handled McMillan’s role in their offense. 

Was Tetairoa McMillan facing a lack of involvement in Carolina’s offense?

Tetairoa McMillan finished his rookie season having played 87.18% of his team’s offensive snaps. McMillan’s 1,014 yards also accounted for 30.7% of the Panthers’ total receiving yards in 2025. Yet, while watching the Panthers play last season, ex-NFL player Ryan Fitzpatrick was left frustrated by McMillan’s usage in the team’s offense. 

“When I was watching games this year, there was a little bit of frustration in that, like, he’s [Tetairoa McMillan] got to be more involved,” Ryan Fitzpatrick said recently on his Fitz & Whit podcast. “Like, he’s got to be such a focal point of that offense. And you go through a game, and it’s like he doesn’t have a catch in the first half. And it’s like, all right. I heard Ben Johnson say this year, like, we don’t do 50/50 balls.”

“It’s like when you have a guy like Tetairoa McMillan, like if you have players like that, then all of a sudden you’ve got to do 50/50 balls. Like, I think Bryce Young, maybe as the season went on, got a little more comfortable with like, he got to throw the ball up to this guy cuz when it’s one-on-one, it’s a 70/30 ball. He’s that special.”

Before the Panthers drafted him, analysts widely believed that Tetairoa McMillan’s size and ability to win 50/50 catches would make him a dangerous downfield weapon for any team. But Fitzpatrick just pointed out that McMillan was not heavily targeted throughout the games in Carolina’s offense. Fitzpatrick’s comments suggest that Carolina’s offensive plans limited McMillan’s opportunities in his rookie season. 

At the same time, the Panthers’ offense also struggled with consistency in the passing game last season, as they ranked 26th in the NFL with just 179.3 passing yards per game. In that context, it becomes easier to understand why Bryce Young did not target McMillan for long stretches during games. Even so, McMillan has already shown he can be the lead receiver for the Panthers who can turn 50/50 balls into 70/30 balls. Given that upside, the Panthers might decide to involve McMillan more in their passing game next season.