Jalen McMillan Broke Neck Bones
October 30th, 2025
Jalen McMillan wearing a neck brace under his hoodie.
Sobering news today on the Ira Kaufman Podcast with special guest Todd Bowles.
Bucs second-year receiver Jalen McMillan landed on his head after jumping for a catch in a Week 2 preseason game in Pittsburgh and messed up his neck. The Bucs said it was a severely strained neck.
It was worse than that. Bowles said on the podcast that McMillan broke bones in his neck.
“It’s just a matter of the bones healing the right way,” Bowles said of McMillan’s slow recovery. “And those are such difficult bones to judge inside the neck, and I’m not in the medical profession, but he’s coming along. I think he’s in good spirits. And I think he’s getting a lot better, I just don’t know how close.”
The head coach explained McMillan is recovering for life as well as football.
“He’s still in a brace but he’s getting better,” Bowles said. “He’s getting better. But necks are not like ankles or arms, where you see progress — where you can lift on them and work them out while you’re still in a brace. And you can say, ‘Oh, he looks good today. He’s getting stronger. He’s getting faster.’ It’s a neck injury. And those, like you said, it’s a life thing if it doesn’t heal the right way. So [team doctors] are saying it’s healing the right way. They’re saying he’s coming along. He’s feeling better. He’s all similes. I don’t know what that means, honestly. Because again, until he puts on a helmet and starts working out and everything else, you just don’t know.”
This definitely was a deflating report from Bowles as it relates to McMillan playing this season, but great news as it relates to his overall recovery.
In May of 2019, then-Bucs edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul broke his neck during an early-May car accident (Ferrari) in South Florida. He was back on the field in late October and had 8 1/2 sacks in 10 games.
That recovery timeline was considered exceptional, so Joe is going to consider McMillan done for the 2025 season.
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