Blow up in 2025?
Did the Bucs steal a stud receiver last year in the third round last year? If history is any accurate barometer, it seems the Bucs sure did.
Now what a guy does in his rookie season isn’t exactly a harbinger that he will be a bust, a Pro Bowler, an All Pro or a Hall of Famer. But clearly, Bucs fans have to like how McMillan finished his rookie season.
After catching a touchdown pass against the Commandos his very first game last season, McMillan sort of went into the witness protection program.
And when the Bucs needed him the most, with both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on the shelf for four games, McMillan never had a touchdown catch (though he did have four catches in a home loss to Atlanta).
McMillan wouldn’t catch another touchdown pass after the season-opening win until December. And then, McMillan went off.
Perhaps being in the Christmas mood, perhaps finally figuring things out as a pro, or perhaps he had a come-to-Jesus moment with someone, McMillan busted out and balled out.
McMillen had seven touchdown catches in the Bucs’ final five games of the regular season. In the annals of Bucs history, that is huge.
The only two guys who put up numbers to end the season like McMillan last year, one has his name in the Bucs Ring of Honor and the other will have a bust in Canton.
McMillan’s seven touchdowns over the last five regular seaosn games is tied for most by a Bucs player over a five-game span in franchise history. The only other players to pull that off were Mike Evans (2021) and Jimmie Giles (1985).
And in 2024, there was only one other player in the league who had at least seven touchdowns over a five-game stretch. Some guy in Cincinnati guaranteed to make at least $32 million this season, Ja’Marr Chase.
So what should we make out of McMillan? Is he a No. 1 receiver in the waiting? Or was that five-game stretch a fluke?
If his five-game stretch was just a jump-start to his career, the Bucs could have a dangerous offense this fall.