Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, right, talks with wide receivers coach Rob Moore, left, during the team’s rookie minicamp practice on Friday, May 9, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Rob Moore has inherited the Carolina Panthers’ top pick in each of his first two offseasons as the team’s wide receivers coach.
First, it was a Day 1 trade up for Xavier Legette in 2024. Then, it was the eighth overall selection of Tetairoa McMillan in last month’s NFL Draft. And while some would see those back-to-back top selections as being a burden of pressure to work with, Moore — a former Pro Bowl wide receiver — is treating the duo as he would anyone else in his position room.
“I don’t coach them any differently than I would a free agent or a sixth-, fifth-round pick,” Moore told The Observer last week. “I train them all the same. I think what you find in those guys is just that there’s an ability level that maybe they have that the other guys don’t. But at the end of the day, I train them all the same. I don’t really look at it as pressure. I look at it as an opportunity to coach some great athletes and I really take pride in winning football games but also doing the best I can to make these guys a lot of money so they can take care of their families.”
Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, left, receives technique help from wide receivers coach Rob Moore, left, during the team’s rookie minicamp practice on Friday, May 9, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Moore has seen everything that the NFL can throw at a wide receiver. He played more than a decade in the league and was named an All-Pro in 1997 after leading the NFL with 1,584 receiving yards. Following retirement, he immediately began coaching at the high school level before spending a few years in the college ranks as a wide receivers coach.
Moore has coached in the NFL since 2013. He’s worked with standouts such as A.J. Brown, Amari Cooper, DeAndre Hopkins and Stevie Johnson during his career. And now, with a pair of first-round picks to mold, Moore — a 1990 first-round pick out of Syracuse — is relishing the opportunity to guide a jam-packed depth chart into the heart of the offseason program.
“The thing that we’ve done a great job with this year is creating a room that has a lot of competition,” Moore said. “At the end of the day, if you wanna get the Super Bowls and you wanna win football games, you gotta create an environment where guys have to grow, and I think that’s what we’ve done.”
Tetairoa McMillan: Speed is important, but size is harder to cover
Moore’s prized pupil during this month’s rookie minicamp was a 6-foot-4, 219-pound playmaker from the University of Arizona. McMillan, the team’s latest top-10 pick, came to Carolina with a polarizing profile.
Sure, his size and catch radius made him a draft darling. But there were also some experts who questioned his speed and overall urgency on the field.
Moore, who has worked with McMillan for a couple of weeks, has seen a rookie who wants to improve his game immediately.
“He’s really intentional on what he does,” Moore said. “When you give him information, he takes it to heart. He wants to make sure he’s doing it right. He’s in here early in the morning so that we can go through the script so he can get questions answered. He wants to look at film, show me some releases. … He’s really engaged in terms of how he’s gonna take his game from college and bring it to the pro game. He understands that the play strength is gonna be different at this level, the speed is different at this level, but I think he has a skill set that will lend to him having a lot of success.”
Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, center, breaks off the line as wide receivers Sevonne Rhea, left and Moose Muhammad III, right, look on during the the team’s rookie minicamp practice on Friday, May 9, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
McMillan, at times, looked somewhat sluggish on his college film.
Moore notes that while McMillan isn’t a blazer on the field, his urgency as a route runner will be turned up a notch as a pro. His speed off the line will probably need some fine-tuning, and that’s likely to be a focus for Moore during McMillan’s initial summer in Charlotte.
“He did the things in college that led to him having success,” Moore said. “He didn’t need to do some of those other things. At this level, because you have the elite pass rushers in this league, that ball gets out quick. So, there are some of those things that we’re gonna have to get away from and just play with a little bit more urgency.
“He understands that and you can already see that in his game that he understands that the clock moves a lot faster. So, I think you’re just looking at a person who did what he had to do to have success in college, and I think he’ll make that transition to the pro game in terms of some of the tweaks and turns you may need to make.”
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, right, races across the field during the team’s rookie minicamp practice on Friday, May 9, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
And while the Panthers would like to get more speed out of McMillan, they are still salivating over what his size and body control can bring to the offense. Moore sees McMillan’s size and length as his top weapons.
“I think when you’re looking at someone who’s 6-4, most of the time those guys aren’t gonna run 4.3 (40-yard dash), but I dare you, I challenge you, to get next to that guy once he gets past 20 (yards),” Moore said. “Then what happens? That’s when this stride kicks over, so I think some of that stuff is vastly overrated. Is speed important? Absolutely, in this game. But when you have the skill set he has — someone who understands how to run around, someone who has elite ball skills, who has the size and range to really cause problems for people, he’ll get some of those explosive plays, and I think he’ll surprise some people.”
Xavier Legette: ‘The joke is on them’
When the Panthers traded up from the first pick in the second round to the last pick in the first round in 2024, the idea was that they would be securing a dynamic starting wide receiver — on a cost-controlled contract with a fifth-year option — for the foreseeable future.
While Legette had some exciting moments during the first half of his rookie season, he clearly hit a wall down the stretch.
Unfortunately for Legette, a game-defining drop on what would have been a wide-open touchdown completion to take the late lead from the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in Week 14, became the lasting image of his first NFL campaign. The Panthers lost to the Eagles, 22-16, in heartbreaking fashion.
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette had this potential game-winning touchdown pass from Bryce Young in his hands in the final minute, but the rookie first-round draft pick dropped it when he hit the ground. The Panthers lost, 22-16, to the Eagles. Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Before the game this past December, Moore had A.J. Brown — a three-time Pro Bowl playmaker — speak with Legette and Carolina’s other young wideouts. The wide receivers coach, like general manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales, is quick to note Legette’s willingness to improve and learn. And while Brown’s words might not have helped Legette in the loss to the Eagles, perhaps the shared wisdom will pay off in the long run.
Despite building a brand around his unique — and sometimes hard to decipher — southern accent, Moore sees Legette as a student of the game.
“Xavier works extremely hard,” Moore said. “He studies the game. He’s got a really high football IQ. I think some people get it mixed up when they hear him talk … but he’s a very, very bright kid — very bright kid — and I always tell my wife like, ‘The joke is on them because they have no idea how smart this kid is.’”
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette chases after wide receiver Adam Thielen, left, to continue celebrating Thielen’s touchdown pass reception from quarterback Bryce Young during action against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC on Sunday, December 1, 2024. The Buccaneers would defeat the Panthers in overtime 26-23. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Legette was plagued by wrist and foot injuries during the bulk of his second-half struggles as a rookie.
At times, Legette was lackluster in his route running, and his ability to catch the ball was seemingly stunted. He underwent foot surgery — while opting against wrist surgery — during the offseason, and he has since rejoined his teammates on the practice field.
“Huge difference,” Moore said. “He looks healthy, he’s confident, he’s smiling. So, yeah, I’m excited to see where this thing goes.”
The youth movement: Bring on the competition
McMillan wasn’t the only wide receiver the Panthers drafted in April. The franchise also selected Colorado wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. with its final pick in the sixth round.
Horn ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. That’s a solid, but not spectacular, number for a 5-8, 171-pound receiver in the NFL. But Horn’s film at the University of Colorado and his impressive work at this month’s rookie minicamp showed that his playing speed is top notch.
“Everything he does is 100 miles an hour, and you can feel the speed,” Moore said. “He’s not one of those fast guys that ran fast, but you don’t really see (a lack of speed) on tape. You see (the speed) on tape and when he runs by you, it’s like a blur. So, he plays fast — he has a confidence about him that you can appreciate.”
Carolina Panthers Jimmy Horn Jr. runs with the ball during the Carolina Panthers rookie minicamp in Charlotte on Saturday, May 10, 2025. KHADEJEH NIKOUYEH Knikouyeh@charlotteobserver.com
Moore is excited about all the new recruits in the room.
Along with McMillan and Horn, the team also signed Jacolby George, Kobe Hudson and Muhsin “Moose” Muhammad III to undrafted rookie deals. Those rookies join a group that already features the likes of Legette, Adam Thielen, David Moore, Jalen Coker, Dan Chisena and the newly signed Hunter Renfrow.
“I think we’ve got a really good room,” Moore said. “Having a veteran like Adam Thielen, who does it the right way, works the right way — he’s a family man. He does a lot of things — my players have somebody they can look to in the room and say, ‘That’s what a pro looks like.’”
Coker, last year’s undrafted standout in the wideout room, is among the young players who excite Moore. He’s an example of how to make it in the NFL without the benefit of a draft pedigree. He’s also someone the new recruits are going to need to battle every single day during the summer.
“Jalen has really good size,” Moore said. “He’s another guy that has tremendous ball skills, good body control, all those things, that lends to him being able to play in the NFL. Jalen might be 4.59 or whatever he ran (Coker clocked 4.57 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the combine), but this league is about understanding how to play with what you have. … I think he’s kind of figured that part out.”
Carolina Panthers wide receiver Jalen Coker escapes the grasp of New Orleans Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu during action on Sunday, November 3, 2024. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Moore is hoping to help this year’s undrafted group figure things out. George, Hudson and Muhammad will need to beat out some veterans to earn spots on the roster, but Moore is optimistic about the competition that is brewing as the team gets ready for organized team activities later this month.
“Having this undrafted rookie class that we have, to push the room, all these guys have a legitimate chance to make this football team,” Moore said. “You can’t always say that and when you look at guys like Kobe, Jacolby — JG as we refer to him — (and) Moose — I think at the end of the day, this is the best overall wide receiver room I’ve had from a competitive standpoint — without a question.”
The Charlotte Observer
Mike Kaye covers the Carolina Panthers for The Charlotte Observer. Kaye previously covered the entire NFL for Pro Football Network, the Philadelphia Eagles for NJ Advance Media and the Jacksonville Jaguars for First Coast News. He is a graduate of the University of North Florida.