{"id":75394,"date":"2025-07-18T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=75394"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:52:11","slug":"the-best-sec-defensive-linemen-returning-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/07\/18\/the-best-sec-defensive-linemen-returning-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best SEC Defensive Linemen Returning In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether fans want to admit it or not, if a defensive lineman proves himself to be the best of the SEC any season, it\u2019s a certainty the NFL draft is going to be calling their name in April. The 2025 season features some future offensive linemen from a place where it just means more. But the disrupters on the defensive line of scrimmage come with a hotness factor that offensive linemen will never have<\/a>. Which game-wrecking SEC defender will find himself at the top of Last Word’s best SEC defensive linemen countdown?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Best SEC Defensive Linemen Returning in 2025<\/h2>\n

R Mason Thomas – Oklahoma<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"The
Photo courtesy: Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is only one player on this countdown who actually earned All-Conference honors in 2024. Brent Venables\u2019 defense saw improvement in 2024 after an abysmal showing in 2023. One of the players responsible for this improvement was R Mason Thomas<\/a>. He earned second-team All-SEC honors, finishing with a team-leading 12 1\/2 tackles for loss and 11 hurries. Thomas ranked fifth in the SEC and 20th nationally with nine sacks. He had an opportunity to declare for the draft after last season. But Thomas decided to return to the Sooners in hopes of increasing his draft stock.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keldric Faulk – Auburn<\/span><\/h3>\n

Hugh Freeze is feeling some pressure going into the 2025 season. He is having to rebuild almost all of his front seven. But luckily for him, he has one of the best SEC defensive linemen returning. Keldric Faulk<\/a> has had significant contributions to the Tigers over his first two seasons on the plains. He has 20 starts in and is garnering first-round NFL Draft buzz heading into the season. He tallied 11 tackles for loss and seven sacks last season. His 83.8 PFF overall grade ranks fifth among returning Power Four edge rushers.\u00a0Stopping the run is where Faulk truly shines. He tied for eighth among Power Four edges in run-defense stops (23) last year. But Faulk is not just a one-trick pony. He totaled nine sacks and 45 pressures in 2024. Both of those stats placed him in the top 20 of the Power Four. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dylan Stewart – South Carolina <\/span><\/h3>\n

Normally, as Last Word rolls out its \u201cBest Of\u201d series, experienced players tend to rule the day for the position groups. But for the best SEC defensive linemen, the top two were true freshmen in 2024. Dylan Stewart<\/a> was a menace to SEC offenses for Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks. He finished fourth in the SEC with 51 quarterback pressures in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus. He made 11 starts and finished with 10.5 tackles for loss and six-and-a-half sacks. Stewart also finished 2024 with a 91.4 PFF pass-rush grade, tied for sixth among all college football edge defenders. His 51 pressures tied for the second most among returning Power Four edge rushers. Stewart\u2019s production and expectations landed him on the first-team Water Camp Preseason All-America Team. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Best SEC Defensive Lineman Returning In 2025 Is Colin Simmons – Texas<\/span><\/h3>\n

The idea that a player who never started a game last year could be crowned the best of the SEC defense linemen might appear blasphemous. But make no mistake; Colin Simmons<\/a> is worthy of the title. Simmons arrived in Austin as a top-15 overall recruit and somehow exceeded expectations. The Shaun Alexander Award winner \u2014 given to the nation\u2019s top freshman \u2014 didn\u2019t even start a game for the Longhorns in 2024. Yet, he tied for third in the SEC in tackles for loss (14) and tied for fifth in sacks (nine). According to PFF, Simmons had an 18.6% pressure rate, a top-15 mark in the nation. He also contributed in the run game to the tune with a PFF grade of 73.4. Steve Sarkisian is thrilled to have this type of game-changing defender not just in 2025, but due to draft eligibility rules, will be back in 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Image: Jeremy Reper-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether fans want to admit it or not, if a defensive lineman proves himself to be the best of the SEC any season, it\u2019s a certainty the NFL draft is going to be calling their name in April. The 2025 season features some future offensive linemen from a place where it just means more. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":75412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35583,35581,3,35577,35576],"tags":[162,1486,1546,37,149,80,5095,204],"class_list":["post-75394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-auburn-tigers","category-oklahoma-sooners","category-sec","category-south-carolina-gamecocks","category-texas-longhorns","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-brent-venables","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-shane-beamer","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75394"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75413,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75394\/revisions\/75413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}