Auburn Tigers Place 2 Players on The Athletic's Top 25

The Auburn Tigers football team continues to find its way back to relevance with excellent work in recruiting and the transfer portal. After years of hearing derisive media voices almost gleefully cheer their failures, the Tigers started to build a roster worth praising. 

The Athletic’s Manny Navarro has taken notice and placed two Tigers on his list of Top 25 Players from the SEC. 

Defensive end Keldric Faulk leads the way for Auburn, coming in at No. 6. 

“The 6-6, 270-pound junior has 20 starts in two seasons at Auburn and is garnering first-round NFL Draft buzz heading into the season,” Navarro wrote on The Athletic. “He tallied 11 tackles for loss and seven sacks last season and is the only returning full-time starter on the Tigers’ front seven.”

From what you see on film and what coaches declared, Faulk looks primed for a monster season. A season that many fans hope will elevate him into the conversation as one of the best players in recent team history. Unfortunately, the downside of such a strong showing means that Faulk will leave The Plains for the 2026 NFL Draft, where many believe that he will hear his name called within the first ten picks of the first round. 

Sophomore wide receiver Cam Coleman also cracked the list at No. 15, one spot ahead of Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning. 

“The 6-3, 195-pound sensational sophomore from Phenix City, Ala., lived up to his five-star hype in Year 1, catching 37 passes for 598 yards and eight touchdowns,” wrote Navarro. “He should thrive with a bunch of new weapons around him this fall, including receivers Eric Singleton Jr. (Georgia Tech) and Horatio Fields (Wake Forest).”

Coleman got off to a fast start at Auburn before a shoulder injury slowed him down. Once he was healthy, he closed the season with a flourish. He had 306 yards and six touchdowns in the Tigers’ final three games of the year. 

Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers hope they have several more players in contention for this list by season’s end, including transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold and Singleton, among others. 

There’s little doubt Freeze has improved the quality of the roster since arriving in Auburn, but now it’s time to turn off-field wins into on-field wins.