The SEC has some of the best edge-rushers in the entire country for 2016. In fact, it may hold a monopoly on them for next season.
Bleacher Report ranked its top 10 defensive ends in the country entering spring practices, and SEC players amazingly occupy the top four spots and five of the 10 overall. Coming in at No. 1 is Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett, who led the SEC in sacks last season with 12.5.
The next three were Missouri’s Charles Harris, Alabama’s Jonathan Allen and Tennessee’s Derek Barnett.
Harris had a string of four straight games with a sack against Florida, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. His 18.5 tackles for loss were 2nd only to Garrett last season.
Meanwhile, Allen finished with 12 sacks, also 2nd only to Garrett in 2015. He recorded multiple sacks in four games, including a season-high 3 at Mississippi State.
Barnett had 69 tackles last season, the most of any defensive lineman in the conference, 12.5 of those were for a loss, and he added 10 sacks.
Ole Miss’ Marquis Haynes was ranked No. 9. Haynes matched Barnett’s 10 sacks last season and was tied for 4th in the league with 16.5 tackles for loss. After failing to be involved in a tackle behind the line of scrimmage in two of the first three games, Haynes was remarkably in on a TFL in each of the team’s last 10 games.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
