He may not be as dynamic as someone like Ja'Marr Chase or Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but Drake London has everything you want in an NFL wide receiver. He has great size at 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds, solid speed, and great hands. Let's just say there's a reason he's Michael Penix Jr.'s favorite target.
It's no secret the Atlanta Falcons are lucky to have him, especially considering he has the versatility to be moved around the formation. They'll line him up in the slot, and when you have this guy facing off with 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11 cornerbacks, you know exactly who will come down with the ball.
So naturally, a lot of NFL teams should try to emulate what the Falcons have done with London, especially if they have a bigger wideout as their WR1.And it just so happens that Atlanta's biggest competition in the NFC South, the Carolina Panthers, are trying to do the same with their star wideout, reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan.
The similarities are becoming uncanny, and it goes well beyond the two of them both being former eighth overall picks. The Dirty Birds laid the blueprint, and now the Panthers are taking advantage after McMillan had the best game of his career on Sunday night--a .14-catch, 192-yard, 2-TD showcase agianst the Lions.
Panthers are moving Tet McMillan around the formation just like the Falcons do Drake London
McMillan, who is 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds has an eerily similar frame to London, but they're not using him as a true X either. While he's a dog on the outside, the know playing him in the slot turns him into a bigger matchup nightmare, so it'd be coaching malpractice for any play-caller to not lean into that.
Through four weeks, London has lined up in the slot on 50 of his 219 snaps (22.8%) this season, while McMillan has done so on 58 of his 249 snaps (23.3%) in 2026. That half a percent difference is essentially microscopic when there is only an eight-snap difference between their slot usage.
For reference, the Panthers didn't utilize the 23-year-old out of the slot nearly as much last uear. Through the first couple of weeks of 2025, he played just 42 snaps as a slot wideout, as they didn't shift towards this until the end of last year and embrace it until this summer now that OC Brad Idzik is calling plays over Dave Canales.
According to PFF, he lined up in the slot on just 152 of his 984 snaps (15.44%) as a rookie, so the increase is already becoming noticeable. But this is how it started with Drake London too. As a rookie, it was only 15% of the time, which became 19% of the time in 2023 before a major jump in Year 3.
It wasn't until Zac Robinson came in that the Dirty Birds leaned into this. In both 2024 and 2025, the reps were split 60-40 between out wide and in the slot. To London's credit, he is a better route runner and faster than McMillan, so the blueprint works a little better in Atlanta than it would in Carolina.
Since Tetairoa McMillan has a similar connection with Bryce Young that Drake London does with Michael Penix Jr., the Panthers are trying to steal the WR1 blueprint the Atlanta Falcons revolutionized.
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