CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first game of the Bryce Young-Tetairoa McMillan era kicks off Sunday in what are expected to be steamy conditions at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.
But the seeds for what the Carolina Panthers hope will be a long-lasting relationship between the team’s third-year quarterback and rookie receiver were first planted on an overcast morning in March more than 2,400 miles away at a two-year college in Huntington Beach, Calif.
It was at Golden West College where Young had his much-discussed throwing session with McMillan, the first-team All-American from Arizona, whom the Panthers were considering taking with the No. 8 pick, even while most observers were calling for general manager Dan Morgan to take a defensive player.
McMillan told reporters about the workout shortly after the Panthers drafted him, along with how Young “sat on the table” for him with Morgan and coach Dave Canales. A private receivers coach in attendance that morning said McMillan didn’t drop a ball while running routes specific to the Panthers’ playbook.
“Bryce was going through the route tree, and T-Mac is running the routes. Obviously, Bryce throws everything on the money. T-Mac didn’t drop a ball,” said T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who began working with McMillan this year. “So afterwards, Bryce looked at me and smiled. He’s like, ‘Man, he’s good.’”
Young essentially told the Panthers’ decision-makers the same thing about the receiver he’d played against in high school. Five months later, the early chemistry Young and McMillan built takes on added importance following what McMillan called a “weird week” in the receivers room.
After the Panthers traded Adam Thielen to Minnesota and saw Jalen Coker injure his quad, Young is expected to rely even more heavily on the 6-foot-4, 219-pound McMillan. With Canales calling the plays, that’s three southern Californians who will play huge roles in the success or failure of the Panthers’ offense this year.
McMillan, who learned that Canales was from Carson, Calif., during his combine meeting with the Panthers, believes his familiarity with Young and his shared background with Canales can only help.
“That’s dope just having that kind of similarities with the coach. And then obviously the quarterback, Bryce,” he said. “So I feel like that transition, it has been easier. I have people to relate to with certain similar traits and similar culture. So that’s always good.”
If Cabo is the playground for many NFL players and coaches after the season, Golden West College is the proving ground. The 11,000-student school is the home of 3DQB, a quarterback training group that counts Young, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, C.J. Stroud, Jared Goff and Dak Prescott among its clients.
Houshmandzadeh, the former NFL receiver whose last season was 2011, also uses the facility to work with receivers such as Tee Higgins, Puka Nacua, Brandon Aiyuk and Michael Pittman. It was at this intersection of quarterbacks and receivers where Young and McMillan hooked up in the offseason.
Young was familiar with McMillan from their lone high school meeting — a 45-point win for Young’s Mater Dei team over Servite in 2019 during Young’s senior season. So he asked Houshmandzadeh if McMillan would be at Golden West in between his pro day and top-30 visits.
“Obviously, I’d followed his career a long time. I knew of him, was already a big advocate and a big supporter — a big fan of his game before that,” Young said last week. “But in the offseason, it’s always nice throwing to people, kinda getting that feel. It was cool. …
“The front office was evaluating him (and) other people, too. Me knowing that, I just wanted to, I guess, do my due diligence, even though I didn’t have to be wooed very much. I already knew his game. But it was a good opportunity.”
TMac in action pic.twitter.com/CpC06a0yrl
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 14, 2025
The March 31 workout with Young was one of the few times McMillan had caught passes from a quarterback other than Noah Fifita since seventh grade. McMillan had worked with Fifita — his teammate in middle school, high school and college — at Golden West when Fifita was training with 3DQB.
But on this day, he wanted to show Young what he could do.
“He was the No. 1 player in his senior class, and I played against him that year. Obviously, he won the Heisman and went No. 1 overall. I knew who he was, and I knew his talent. So I kind of just went in there, really, I was more nervous about myself,” McMillan said before clarifying.
“Not nervous, but let me go out here — it’s pretty much my first impression. I have to give my first impression to Bryce and hopefully he can relay the message to whoever that may be — coach Canales, Dan Morgan, whoever that is. So kind of just going out there (and) basically building trust from the beginning.”
T-Mac’s time at Arizona
SCHOOLYEARGRECYDSYPCTD
2024
12
84
1,319
15.7
8
2023
13
90
1,402
15.6
10
2022
12
39
702
18
8
McMillan was one of several receivers catching passes from Young, who said it was beneficial to run through some of the “niche stuff” in the Panthers’ playbook with McMillan. “You do the basic stuff, too. But see some different routes, see some stuff that’s a little more specific to us, be able to picture more things,” he said. “It was good.”
Taylor Kelly, Young’s QB coach at Mater Dei and now his personal coach at 3DQB, had put together the throwing script for the day McMillan was at the facility. Kelly said McMillan made a play coming across the middle on an in-cut that grabbed everyone’s attention.
“He just sticks his hand up and catches it one-handed without losing stride. Those things kind of jump out at you as a wide receiver, especially a young one,” Kelly said. “And Bryce had a smile on his face when that happened. It was like, ‘Yeah, this dude’s legit.’”
Houshmandzadeh believes Young also came away impressed with McMillan’s catch radius and ability to high-point balls.
“T-Mac’s the type of receiver, you don’t have to be perfect with the ball. You can put it anywhere, he’s gonna go get it,” he said. “And for a quarterback — especially a quarterback like Bryce — you got T-Mac, you have (Xavier) Legette. You’ve got two big-bodied dudes that can run and make plays for you. So once Bryce saw that, he was sold.”
The next step for Young was selling Morgan and Canales on McMillan. Morgan said he’s previously picked Young’s brain on other players. Besides McMillan, Young threw with at least one other receiver who was in this year’s draft — Oregon’s Tez Johnson, who went in the seventh round to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“He’s been to so many of these camps back in the day to where he knows so many of these people. And he’s a football junkie,” Morgan said of Young. “You just never know what information you can get if you don’t ask.”
When Morgan asked about McMillan following the workout, Young raved about his size, his hands and the way he ran — all of which made him “a QB-friendly target,” Morgan said.
“From my seat, we already liked the guy,” Morgan added. “And you have your quarterback throwing to the guy, it’s pretty cool to feel what it’s like to throw to him before you even draft him. That’s just great information and really helpful.”
While the morning at Golden West confirmed Young’s high view of McMillan, the former Alabama QB didn’t want to get too excited.
“It was like a balancing act of you see something (and say), ‘Oh, man, this would be great. And (we) worked on this,’” Young said. “But obviously, you don’t know if they’re gonna be your teammate, yet. So you don’t want to get your hopes too high or too low.”
A little more than three weeks after the workout, Morgan took a receiver in the first round for the second year in a row — then called Young to tell him the news. Back in California, Houshmandzadeh was pleased with the pick — but not surprised.
“Once Bryce saw how good T-Mac was, what quarterback wouldn’t want T-Mac on their team?” he said. “You’ve gotta understand we’re out here training and there’s multiple, first-round picks every year at receiver. So Bryce sees these guys. He sees what these guys can do. He’s around them every day. And so he wants one.
“And once he was able to work with T-Mac, he was like, ‘We’ve gotta draft him.’ So I know for a fact Bryce was on Canales and Dan Morgan and those guys to please consider him strongly because he can help us.”
Young and McMillan were back at Golden West this summer, working out before the Panthers’ training camp. That’s a benefit of the two living in close proximity in Orange County.
“So it’s convenient. It’s easy for both of us. It’s obviously gonna make our chemistry that much easier,” McMillan said. “We’re both hard workers. We always try to get it in whenever we possibly can. That’s gonna be a plus for us, for sure.”
Bryce Pierre, a tight end on the Panthers’ practice squad, saw that “Cali connection” when he joined Young and McMillan for the summer passing session.
“They’re gonna have great chemistry this year. Watching them build that chemistry over that time in Golden West, it seemed like they were on the same page a lot,” Pierre said. “They’re gonna look good together.”
Young is coming off a strong finish to the 2024 season after being benched before Carolina’s Week 3 game.
From Week 8, when Young took back over through the end of the season, PFF scored him with an 83.7 passing grade, sixth best in the league over that span. He completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 2,104 yards, 15 TDs and six interceptions while completing 16 passes of 25-plus yards.
It’s one thing to look good catching passes against air, compared to trying to shake free from NFL cornerbacks. McMillan will make his debut against two-way player Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner from Colorado expected to see snaps at receiver and cornerback.
A thing of beauty!
📺: NFL Network pic.twitter.com/YMbASkKTNz
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 8, 2025
Young and McMillan weren’t always on the same page during training camp, which was to be expected. “The thing for them is just continuing to work out the timing on some of those precision routes that they both have a good feel for,” offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said. “How does it work within the scope of the play, what Bryce is expecting when he hits his back foot and lets that thing go? Those are the fun things you get to work through in training camp.”
But there were promising signs in the preseason.
Early in the first exhibition game against Cleveland, Young lofted a pass down the right sideline for McMillan, who pulled it in for a 30-yard gain, which stood as the Panthers’ longest play of the offseason.
Young wasn’t certain, but he might have seen something similar in Southern California. Young was asked how he and McMillan ended their pre-draft, throw-and-catch at Golden West.
“Probably something deep,” said Young, noting that his workouts often wrap up with a downfield pass. “But yeah, probably something deep.”
(Photo of Young and McMillan: Tim Warner / Getty Images)