Here's how early the Panthers locked into drafting WR Tetairoa McMillan

The predictions were in and the consensus was a certainty—the Carolina Panthers were going to select Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Everyone knew it, and everyone agreed. But somebody forgot to tell the Panthers' front office.

Instead, Carolina threw a curveball in the first round, and took University of Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan. And despite the media's certainty about Walker being the guy for the Panthers, there didn't seem to be any real consideration of taking anyone other than McMillan. Joe Person of The Athletic documented the team's journey towards the talented pass catcher in an article on Tuesday .

He included a quote from executive vice president of football operations Brandt Tilis, who stated that general manager Dan Morgan locked in on McMillan months and months before the selection process: "We watched his film several times. It was all very good. But Dan was very convicted, like way early, like late September.

For me, I’ll watch these guys and I’ll give my opinion based on what I know and what I don’t know. And usually what happens is you’re convicted about a guy in September and then your conviction becomes a lot less in November and then you kind of settle in wherever he ends up (on the draft board) in the spring. And T-Mac didn’t go that way.