The SEC sees one of its talented pass rushers leave for the NFL Draft nearly every year.

Last year, Dante Fowler Jr. (Florida) was the No. 3 overall pick. In 2014, Jadeveon Clowney (South Carolina) went No. 1 overall, and in 2013 Barkevious Mingo (LSU) was the sixth pick.

While 2016 likely will almost certainly another, potentially Robert Nkemdiche (Ole Miss), Leonard Floyd (Georgia), and A’shawn Robinson (Alabama), the 2017 NFL Draft could see two of the conference’s best leave for greener pastures.

Both second-year Texas A&M DE Myles Garrett and second-year Tennessee DE Derek Barnett look like sure-fire top five picks. The question is who will go first?

Last year nobody made a better impression in their first season than Barnett, who finished with 10.0 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss. This year no SEC defender has gotten to the quarterback more than Garrett, who leads the conference with 10.5 sacks (more than Arkansas’ total).

Though Barnett started the season slow he’s picked up his pace recently, starting with a big game in an upset over Georgia.

Barrett, who has 15 career sacks, has the skills to be a premier pass rusher in the NFL, and he’s shown it recently with four sacks in his past three games. But at 6-3, 257 pounds, he is not the physical presence Garrett (6-5, 262) is.

Barnett has gone more games without a sack, 12, than games with a sack, nine. He’s been streaky, but when he’s on, he’s just about the hardest end to block in the nation, but too many times the defensive end has disappeared in games.

Both players look like must-haves in two years, but Garrett, who has 22.0 career sacks in 20 games, deserves the nod at this point.

His career sack total already puts him No. 10 in the SEC since 2005 and the he needs just five more to wind up with the most sacks in the conference in a single-season since 2000.

He won’t catch SEC career leader Derrick Thomas (52), but Garrett needs just seven more sacks to climb into the top 10. Just six SEC players have eclipsed 30 career sacks.

That’s the company he’s keeping.

“Myles Garrett last Saturday (against South Carolina) hit 20.8 miles per hour,” Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin told The Houston Chronicle. “That’s ridiculous for a guy like that. That’s absolutely unheard of for a guy who’s a defensive end. He’s running as fast as defensive backs and wide receivers, as a defensive end. That’s the kind of guy he is.”

Even if you compare Barnett’s 2014 season to Garrett’s 2015 campaign, it’s Garrett who looks like the next Julius Peppers.