Only three plays into the Bucs’ first offensive drive of Sunday’s Week 3 game against the Vikings at Raymond James Stadium, third-year wide receiver Jalen McMillan went down with a knee injury.

On an incomplete pass from Baker Mayfield, McMillan went down awkwardly and stayed down for a minute as trainers came out to check on him. Soon after, he was able to walk off the field, but it wasn’t long before he headed into the locker room.

Initially, the Bucs announced McMillan as having a knee injury and said he was questionable to return to the game against Minnesota. It didn’t take long from there, though, for the team to announce that he would be out for the remainder of the game.

This Marks Just The Latest Injury Issue For Bucs’ Third-Year WR

Jalen McMillan just can’t catch a break, can he?

After a hamstring injury cost him some time during his 2024 rookie season, he returned and went on a tear to close out the regular season. He wound up finishing that campaign with 37 catches for 461 yards (12.5 avg.) and eight touchdowns, and the arrow was pointing up for the former third-round pick out of Washington.

But the momentum then came to a screeching halt during the 2025 preseason, when an errant pass from Teddy Bridgewater led to a nasty fall for McMillan. It was a fall that led three fractured vertebrae and two herniated discs in the young receiver’s neck. That kept him out for the first 13 games of Tampa Bay’s 2025 season.

Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

McMillan returned late in the 2025 campaign and looked good, catching 12 passes for 178 yards (14.8 avg.). He then had a strong 2026 offseason and appeared primed to make a bigger impact in his third NFL season with Mike Evans leaving for the 49ers in free agency.

But then McMillan suffered a leg injury during training camp, and it was later revealed to be a knee problem. He wound up missing the Bucs’ regular season opener against the Bengals in Cincinnati, and while he returned for the team’s Week 2 home opener against the Browns, he only played seven snaps.

Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson spoke this week about having McMillan in position to play a bigger role in Week 3 against the Vikings.

“Yeah, [I’m] excited about ‘J-Mac’ (Jalen McMillan). He was getting back into it,” Robinson said. “He didn’t practice for so long during training camp, and, you know, getting back into a full-week rhythm and all those things that come with it…The only way to get good at football is to play football. So, getting him back out there and seeing how much he can help us out – whether it’s this week, whether it’s next week, whatever it might be – we’re excited because ‘J-Mac’ has a ton of juice.

Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“He can run the full route tree. He’s a great separator at the line of scrimmage. Everything we’ve seen from J-Mac from the start of OTAs – he had really good OTAs, and then he was rolling those early days in camp, as you guys can remember…So, it was a bummer he missed so much time, but it’s great to get him kind of back into a normal flow, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Unfortunately for Robinson, McMillan and the Bucs, they weren’t able to see what kind of impact he could make for the offense against Minnesota’s defense as he exited the game after only three offensive plays. Now, we’ll wait and see what the update looks like following the game and into next week.

Stay tuned.