One of the great tragedies of the 2025 season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was that the entire group of returning starters at wide receiver from 2024 barely got on the field together.
That group — Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Jalen McMillan — missed a total of 30 regular-season games in 2025 due to a variety of injuries.
No one was more absent than McMillan, who fractured his neck in a preseason game on August 9 and missed the 1st 13 games. That came after he missed 4 games as a rookie in 2024.
While Evans and Godwin already had their bona fides as Super Bowl champions, All-Pros, and Pro Bowlers, it was McMillan who was playing better than any of them at the end of his rookie season.
Now, back and presumably healthy, Athlon Sports NFL reporter Luke Easterling put McMillan at the top of his list of overlooked “secret weapons” teams will employ in 2026.
With the departure of Evans to the San Francisco 49ers in free agency, McMillan’s help will be needed now more than ever.
“Even with Mike Evans gone, the Bucs have a loaded receiver group with tons of talent, and McMillan is the most underrated member of the group,” Easterling wrote. “Chris Godwin Jr. is healthy again, and big things are expected from Emeka Egbuka in Year 2, but McMillan is primed for a breakout season after missing most of last year with a scary neck injury he suffered in the preseason. As a rookie the year before, McMillan caught seven of his eight touchdowns over the final five games of the season, scoring at least once in every game with two multi-TD games. Finally back to full strength, McMillan could make a huge impact even as Tampa Bay’s WR3.”
Injuries Have Always Been Issue for Jalen McMillan
Pewter Plank’s Josh Crysler identified McMillan, who has missed 17 games due to injuries over his 1st 2 seasons, as the “X-Factor” for the Buccaneers on offense in 2026 and thinks the former 3rd-round pick could be in for a career year.
That could be a dicey proposition for a player who hasn’t shown he can be healthy for a complete season.
“In a room that features Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, Tez Johnson, and rookie Ted Hurst, Jalen McMillan is often overlooked and underrated,” Crysler wrote. “A big part of this is that he missed the majority of last season recovering from a devastating neck injury, so his stats, so he didn’t have the chance to make the impact he’s capable of. But a fully healthy McMillan could quietly step up into a massive role for the Buccaneers this season.”
McMillan has played a massive role in the offense before. As a rookie in 2024, McMillan had 37 receptions for 461 yards and 8 touchdowns, but put up the bulk of those stats down the stretch with 24 receptions for 316 yards over the final 5 games of the regular season — a stretch in which he led the NFL with 7 touchdowns.
Mystery Surrounding Jalen McMillan’s Initial Injury
McMillan was initially diagnosed with a “severe neck sprain” after he was injured against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a preseason game on August 16.
He was also initially projected to return for Week 8 or Week 9, but didn’t make his regular-season debut until Week 15 against the Atlanta Falcons.
The twist was that McMillan didn’t really have a neck sprain — he actually fractured three vertebrae in his neck and, according to a story from ESPN’s Jenna Laine, doctors initially told McMillan there was a chance he could have been paralyzed for life.
“I mean, it was dark for me at first,” McMillan told Laine. “First, I felt good, and I thought it was just a minor injury and then the doctor said I almost got paralyzed, so it kind of scared me a little bit. And then there was doubt too because I didn’t know if I was going to be playing again.”
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