Roman Harper of the SEC Network just put together a list of the top ten players in the SEC, and as has apparently become a custom for employees of ESPN, he demonstrated utter disrespect for Texas A&M's roster. There was no mention of any Aggie players in his top ten— but, predictably, three Texas players made the top five.
1) Trinidad Chambliss
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) September 3, 2026
2) Dylan Stewart
3) Colin Simmons
4) Cam Coleman
5) Arch Manning
6) Kewan Lacy
7) Zabien Brown
8) Kip Lewis
9) Bray Hubbard
10) Trey’Dez Green@Harp41 ranks the Top 10 Players in the SEC 🏈 pic.twitter.com/bCb3MpWPr7
Colin Simmons and Cam Coleman are names that you probably have to have on a list like this, but there is absolutely zero excuse for including Arch Manning in the top ten, let alone the top five. Marcel Reed outplayed him for the entire 2025 season, and there has been no objective data to overturn that since that point.
Roman Harper freezes Texas A&M out of his top ten list in the SEC
If you are going to include Manning on a list like this, you have to include Reed if you are being intellectually honest. This is not a list of best NFL prospects— it's a list of the best current players in the league. In that vein, Reed is a better player right now than Manning is, and the numbers bear that out over and over.
It's not like Reed is the only snub from this list, however. Media consensus has shut the Aggies out from these kinds of lists in the preseason, but there are plenty of Texas A&M players that will show that consensus to be foolish very soon.
Mario Craver is one name that should have made the cut here. He not only has been more productive than Coleman, for example, but he has graded out better per outlets like Pro Football Focus. And yet he doesn't get the spotlight— there's no other explanation other than unjustified bias.
How about Anto Saka for a list like this? He's an unknown to many SEC fans right now (and apparently media members close to the conference, as well), but he and Marco Jones both will be household names once the season gets fully underway.
Marcus Ratcliffe ought to also get his due in this kind of list, yet he is conspicuously absent. He conssitently grades out at elite levels, but it hardly ever registers with the media thanks to the fact that his play style simply is not very flashy.
The messaging this offseason about the Aggies' roster has been very clear: there is not a lot of belief from people around the country that Texas A&M has elite-level talent at any spot. Craver was the only player to make the ESPN top 100 from Texas A&M, and he was all the way down at 86th.
There is a collision course between that evaluation and the Aggies' schedule. Media buzz does not determine the quality of a player, but if the media is right about A&M's roster, then the Aggies are in for a really tough season— yet, none of the numbers would indicate that's what we are going to see out of the Aggies.
Preseason polls and power ratings have the Aggies as a top-10 squad. How can that be the case if they have such a paucity of talent on their roster? Either the subjective opinions of these media members are incorrect, or the numbers are. We'll find out soon enough which will triumph.
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