Texas A&M football returns two of SEC’s top players at important defensive position

Texas A&M football: Two Aggie linebackers graded among top returners in the SEC

One of the huge stories last year with this Texas A&M football team was the rapid emergence of the linebacker talent. The Aggies saw a breakout year from freshman Taurean York, who has been widely recognized as one of the top players at the position among the freshman ranks in the entire nation. That’s not to mention this year’s top draft selection from Texas A&M football, Edgerrin Cooper, having a renaissance of a season, rocketing himself up draft boards.

With Cooper’s departure, however, there was some doubt among the Aggie faithful about how well Texas A&M football can perform at the position in the upcoming year. Returning York is a huge deal, but the impact Cooper had last year would be tough to overstate.

Enter Mike Elko and the transfer portal. Sensing the need for another linebacker, the new head man for the Aggies went out and reeled in Alex Howard from Youngstown State to bring in some competition; once it became clear that Howard would not win the job, however, he departed for Duke. In the spring window, though, Elko hit it big, pulling one of the top defenders from Pitt in Solomon DeShields.

As a tandem, PFF has York and DeShields as two of the highest graded returning players at the position in the entire conference for the upcoming year. 

That’s high praise for these two players. South Carolina and Kentucky are the only other teams with two players on this list.

I’m high on York to take a big jump this upcoming year. DeSheilds seems to me to be a solid choice to start alongside him, but don’t count out Daymion Sanford, whose emergence is reportedly one of the reasons Howard ended up leaving College Station. That could be a very, very solid three-man rotation for the Aggies in the middle of the defense.