Texas A&M football is a school that has a proud tradition of putting big time players into the NFL. Some of the game's most legendary figures have ties to College Station, from Lester Hayes to Von Miller, and that's something A&M fans have been proud of for quite some time.
In recent years, though, the pipeline has dried up somewhat. The Aggie program has ceased to be as much of a fertile ground for the NFL draft, even though they've still put out some players that have found a niche through the UDFA ranks.
Under Mike Elko, the Aggies hope to remedy that ill, among others. For all of the talent that's been coming into College Station, the development piece has been lacking for too long— and this staff has been intent on fixing it.
As a demonstration of just how dire things have become, the Ags only registered three NFL Combine invites this year. That's Shemar Stewart, Shemar Turner, and Nic Scourton: all three are defensive linemen.
Now, there are some mitigating factors here: the Aggies didn't have as many players headed to the draft as they have in other years, and A&M can expect to return quite a bit of experience in 2025. Also, not everyone who will be drafted are players who go to the NFL Combine— but it's a good bellwether.
But the slim pickings and the over-specialization as regards position here should be alarming for this Aggie staff. Or, if not alarming, maybe another example of the trend that they have to turn around in the coming years.
South Carolina, who is rapidly garnering a reputation as a developmental program under Shane Beamer, sent 11 players this year. They're in year five over in Columbia, but the standard is clear for this Aggie program: they need to begin putting out more and better talent into the NFL.
That's not the be-all, end-all as much as simply winning is, but the two have a clear correlation when you're talking about this level of college football. This is an exciting next step for Scourton, Stewart, and Turner, but it's also a signal to the Aggie staff that things simply need to be better in this respect going forward.