Rightfully so, Myles Garrett is the headliner on Texas A&M’s defense heading into John Chavis’ first season with the Aggies.

But the standout sophomore end isn’t going to make or break the Aggies’ run to a Western Division championship. He’s an important piece, no doubt, but Texas A&M’s best shot at redemption in the SEC comes at linebacker where the Aggies are expected to see substantial improvement at a position that’s been terribly inconsistent the last several years.

At LSU, Chavis’ bevy of linebackers were fantastic in pursuit and rarely out of position against the run. The same can be said at Alabama where defensive coordinator Kirby Smart annually pumps out All-Americans in the middle and centers his game plan around being active at the position.

Kevin Sumlin’s taken notice and stresses depth as priority No. 1 this season.

“You look at some of these programs, I’m not going to name them, but they have guys drafted in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth round,” Sumlin said Wednesday at a Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon according to Aggie Sports.“That’s where we need to be as a program.”

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Over his career in Baton Rouge, Chavis changed personnel often rotated 18 to 20 players on defense over the course of a game. For the first time in Sumlin’s tenure, he believes the Aggies finally have the depth on that side of the ball to make that happen, especially within the front seven.

Forced to play as freshmen last fall, linebackers Otaro Alaka and Josh Walker return as seasoned tacklers who have a better understanding of what to expect when the season opens on Sept. 5. The addition of A.J. Hilliard, arguably the Aggies’ best in pursuit who missed most of last season with an ankle injury, further implicates expected improvement as the position.

Junior Shaan Washington, who registered 64 tackles last fall despite missing the first three games of the season, will be back in August after missing spring practice. He’ll be joined by early enrollees Richard Moore and JUCO transfer Claude George as players fighting for snaps in Chavis’ base 4-3 scheme.

Moore looks more like a safety than an outside linebacker at just over 6-foot, 200 pounds, but it’s his speed edge that intrigues the Aggies and fits directly into their new DC’s philosophy.

Glancing at the incoming 2016 class, the Aggies landed a major inside linebacker last week in four-star Tyrel Dodson, an athlete who will bolster this group next spring.

The future’s bright in the middle of Chavis’ defense in College Station and we’ll start to see major strides in the right direction this season.