We are officially inside the top two for valuable Panthers players in fantasy. Over the past three days, you have watched Jonathon Brooks slide in at number five, Chuba Hubbard hold down number four, and Jalen Coker sneak into the number three slot. That means only two names are left in this countdown, and today we pull the curtain back on the player who might be the single most important fantasy asset on Carolina’s roster.
Tet McMillan Is In For A Big Season in 2026
Panthers fantasy player number two is Tetairoa McMillan.
If you drafted a fantasy team in 2025, you already know the story. If you skipped him, this is your reminder to never do that again.
Carolina took Nalo eighth overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, the first receiver off the board, and he paid it off in year one. He started all 17 games and finished with 70 catches on 122 targets for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns. That 1,014-yard total set a new Panthers rookie receiving record, edging past the 1,008 yards Kelvin Benjamin put up back in 2014.
For fantasy purposes, the number that should make you sit up is the target figure. 122 targets in year one is considered genuine WR2 volume, and he earned it as the clear alpha in a passing game that did not have a lot of other reliable options. When a rookie commands that kind of target share on a run-leaning offense, it usually points to more coming, not less.
Looking at his Rookie Numbers
The efficiency backed it up. He averaged 14.5 yards per catch, and 27 of his 70 receptions went for 16-plus yards, which led all rookies. That is the profile of a downfield weapon who also happens to be his quarterback’s security blanket. He hauled in the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award with 41 of 50 first-place votes, added the PFWA rookie honor, and got Pro Football Focus rookie of the year recognition on top of it. The voters were not confused. Neither should your draft board be.
None of this was a fluke, and the Arizona film told you so. As a freshman in 2022, he posted 39 catches for 702 yards and eight touchdowns. He broke out in 2023 with 90 grabs for 1,402 yards and 10 scores. Then in 2024, he backed it up with 84 receptions for 1,319 yards, third in the entire country, and eight more touchdowns. He capped his college run as a Consensus All-American.
His 2024 opener against New Mexico is the game tape everyone points to. He caught 10 passes for a school-record 304 yards and tied a school record with four touchdown catches. He became the first player in FBS history to hit 10-plus catches, 300-plus yards, over 30 yards per catch, and four-plus scores in a single game. That is the kind of ceiling game that translates. In fantasy terms, Nalo is a boom-week machine wrapped in a weekly floor.
The Next Mike Evans?
At 6-foot-5 with the frame to win contested balls and the speed to stretch a field, Tet aka Nalo has the physical outline of the receivers who build long careers out of piling up 1,000-yard seasons. The name that keeps coming up in NFC South circles is Mike Evans, whose run of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons in Tampa Bay set the standard for durable, boring-in-the-best-way production. That is the blueprint for a fantasy anchor: the guy you draft, forget about, and let hand you WR2 lines every week.
But Nalo does not need to become the next Mike Evans. He needs to become the first Nalo. He already has the rookie record, the hardware, and the target volume. The task now is to string those 1,000-yard seasons together and turn a great debut into a career that fantasy managers plan drafts around for a decade.
The 2026 fantasy verdict
Here is where the value lives. Nalo’s current ADP is sitting in the mid-30s in PPR formats, which puts him in the late-second to early-third round range. Industry projections have him around 76 catches for 1,071 yards and six touchdowns, and that feels more like a floor than a ceiling given he cleared 1,000 as a rookie.
The one honest caution is the offense around him. Bryce Young is still only 24, which is the good news, but he has ranked in the bottom-10 of quarterbacks in most meaningful efficiency metrics, and Carolina still profiles as a lower-volume passing attack. If Young takes the leap that a 24-year-old with his draft pedigree still might, Nalo’s ceiling jumps from high-end WR2 to genuine WR1. If Young stays flat, the sheer target share keeps Nalo’s floor firmly at WR2.
2026 ADP for Nalo
That is the definition of a value pick. You are paying a late-third-round price for a proven 1,000-yard producer with a locked-in role, room for positive quarterback regression, and boom-week upside baked in. Draft him with confidence as your WR2, and do not be shocked when he outkicks the tag.
That leaves one name. Panthers fantasy player number one drops tomorrow. You already know we have five more daily breakdowns coming this week, so keep it locked here and do not miss the reveal.
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