Tetairoa McMillan entered the season as the Carolina Panthers' obvious WR1 after a 1,014-yard rookie campaign that earned him AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
Jalen Coker was an undrafted receiver who emerged alongside him after exploding for 134 receiving yards and a touchdown in Carolina's wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Now, two games into the season, defenses are having to account for both.
Carolina Panthers have a legitimate 1-2 receiver punch with Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker
McMillan has done exactly what Carolina expected as he caught five passes for 75 yards in the season opener against the Chicago Bears before adding another five catches for 101 yards against the Atlanta Falcons. He already has 176 yards through two games.
But Coker has been just as important.
The third-year receiver opened the season with eight catches for 138 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears before he then followed that with another eight catches against Atlanta, finishing with 66 yards.
That gives Coker 16 catches for 204 yards and two touchdowns through two games.
The production is one thing. The way Carolina is using the two receivers is what makes this pairing especially interesting.
McMillan can draw extra coverage, opening space elsewhere. Coker can then attack a favorable matchup. If defenses start paying more attention to Coker, McMillan gets more room to work.
Defenses are finding it difficult to contain both Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan
That's a pretty good problem for quarterback Bryce Young to have.
McMillan's presence makes Coker more dangerous. Coker's emergence could make McMillan even more dangerous.
It’s not like the Panthers don't need Coker to become a bigger star than McMillan. They just need him to keep being good enough that defenses can't ignore him.
That's a much easier standard to meet. And through two weeks, he's doing it.
Carolina has a top-10 pick in McMillan, who already looks like a legitimate No. 1 receiver, and an undrafted player in Coker, who has developed into a legitimate threat on the other side. The two can make each other's jobs easier. That's what could make this duo so difficult to deal with as the season progresses.
The Panthers are only two games into the season, so it's obviously too early to crown McMillan and Coker anywhere near the NFL's best receiver duo. But the early numbers are hard to ignore, and Carolina has already shown defenses exactly what happens when they put too much attention on one of them.
Eventually, teams will have to decide how much attention McMillan deserves. And then they'll have to figure out what to do with Coker.
That sounds like a problem Carolina will happily give them.
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