Tetairoa McMillan Camp Update — August 23: Two Red-Zone Scores on Young Throws

Tetairoa McMillan owned Wednesday's joint practice in Jacksonville: two touchdowns among three catches in red-zone work alone against the Jaguars' defense, including a 20-yard score over coverage, per Kole Noble at A to Z Sports. His own explanation gave the credit away — "Bryce just puts it into a spot where only I can get it. He just made it easy for me." Two days later the pair carried it into the game: McMillan caught both his targets for 25 yards during Bryce Young's five-of-six night, per the CBS Sports box score, including a 17-yard catch from the slot that Noble flagged as the team deliberately using his size inside. The usual deflators apply — Jacksonville sat its entire starting group Friday, per Mark Long at the Associated Press, and joint-practice red-zone drills are scripted competition — but the joint-practice work came against Jaguars defenders, not Carolina's scout team, and it is the best sustained Young-to-McMillan evidence of the summer.

Our June preview argued McMillan's ceiling is gated by Bryce Young's accuracy — a Young leap unlocks him, a Young plateau caps him — and this was the first week of camp where the good version of that mechanism showed up on a field, with Young at his cleanest behind restored guards and McMillan the primary beneficiary in both settings. One week is one week, and nothing in August counts. What to watch: McMillan's usage if the starters play in Friday's finale against Houston, and whether the slot deployment Noble flagged keeps appearing, because it is a new wrinkle in how Carolina moves him around. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._