It’s in all probability honest to say that no one was extra excited to return to follow for the Bucs because the staff started its OTAs in 2026 than third-year large receiver Jalen McMillan. The previous Washington product went by the ringer final season with a scary neck damage he suffered within the preseason. McMillan was in a position to get by it and returned to play within the closing 4 video games on the finish of the season. Now he’s targeted on transferring on to greater and higher issues in 2026.
Attending to take part in OTAs and catch footballs from quarterback Baker Mayfield and Co. is usually a nice feeling when one has been by what McMillan has skilled. So even simply having the ability to take the sector, catch the soccer and chop it up along with his Bucs teammates felt like a win in its personal proper.
Bucs WR Jalen McMillan Has New Lease On His Soccer Profession
“I am happy,” Jalen McMillan stated earlier this week. “Simply to be on the market and to catch balls from Baker and simply to run on my toes, I really feel good…I’m positively taking appreciation for the small issues and celebrating small wins and name my mother and pa daily. I’m not taking any relationship as a right, so life has been good.
Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photograph by: Cliff Welch P/R
“I had to sit in my bed and wonder, ‘Is my neck going to heal correctly? So, as soon as I was given the opportunity to play again, I knew that I could not look back and there was no time to be nervous and no time to be thinking about anything.”
Don’t let the enjoyment assume that he’s simply joyful to be right here and that’s it, although. What has made McMillan a particular is his potential to combat. Whether or not that’s preventing for the soccer on a soar ball or a entering into it with an opponent, McMillan’s bulldog mentality has helped him attain some extraordinary ranges.
Who can bear in mind when McMillan made his return final season in the course of the Thursday night time recreation in opposition to the Falcons? Certain, that recreation will likely be acknowledged for what occurred late within the recreation, however early on McMillan made a catch on the objective line slamming into two defenders that then led to a landing quickly after. Afterward, McMillan shoved Falcons cornerback Cobee Bryant for flipping his teammate the other way up in nearly equally to how McMillan was flipped when he suffered his neck damage within the preseason.
Bucs WR Jalen McMillan and Falcons S Xavier Watts – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
Throughout every of these cases, it may very well be simple to overlook that this was McMillan’s first recreation in a number of months. He was in a position to snap proper again into recreation made and didn’t essentially want extra time to get snug taking part in once more. Two weeks later, McMillan had a recreation the place he recorded seven catches for 114 yards in his finest recreation of the 12 months. He will get a full offseason to work on his craft, totally able to go pedal to the metallic.
Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photograph by: Nathan Ray Seebeck -Imagn Pictures
“Jalen’s tough. His mental toughness is unbelievable,” head coach Todd Bowles stated. “His competes and his competitiveness, the way he attacks the ball, the way he fights for every route and tries to get open and wants to be ‘that’ guy,” you understand, that provides you a variety of confidence that he’ll be doing that within the video games.”
A full season of McMillan might be nice for the Bucs. It might not be a shock if he have been to be a breakout star for Tampa Bay along with his skillset mixed along with his psychological fortitude and excessive degree of competitiveness.
