When Erik McCoy decided he would leave Texas A&M early for the 2019 NFL Draft, he took a big bet on himself. It looks like that bet may be preparing to pay off nicely, as his stock has risen as far and as fast as any Aggie prospect I’ve ever seen.

To be fair, McCoy was the best interior lineman I’ve seen in an A&M uniform since Seth McKinney, and he may be better than that. I thought he was consistently overlooked for postseason awards, maybe because he played at such a high level so steadily it was almost an expectation. I don’t think he ever gave up a sack -- and I don’t mean last year, I mean in three years -- and he held his own against players who came into the process with much higher rankings.

But after a great NFL Combine and a more serious look at his film, teams are figuring that, hey, this guy is good. Good enough that he’s gone from a mid- to late-round pick in most mock drafts to a potential first rounder. Heck, I even saw one draft the other day where a team traded up to get him for fear he’d get away.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: mock drafts aren’t worth much of anything. Interior linemen are frequently overlooked and undervalued. But McCoy has made a strong case that he is the best prospect in the guard/center position grouping in this draft. He’s not making the leap just for the hell of it. Teams appear to be seeing what we saw: Erik McCoy is the real deal and will be a very good NFL offensive lineman.

Who is the best player on the Aggie football team?

There’s a lot of talent on this squad, but I think the answer is actually pretty obvious: it’s Justin Madubuike. When it’s all said and done for him, I think he’ll be another first rounder.

I don’t think people realize just how good he was last year, because all of the attention was going to Daylon Mack. But here’s his season totals for 2018: 40 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles. You put him on Alabama and he’s a first team All-SEC player. That’s where he should be this preseason, if there’s anyone with an ounce of intelligence at SEC Media Days.

With Bobby Brown and Jayden Peevy, both of whom have turned into really good players, the Aggies have possibly the best trio of defensive tackles in the SEC. But Madubuike is a level above the other guys. He’s much faster than a man 300 pounds should be, and he’s very technically skilled. He took a major leap last year and if he does so again, there won’t be much question about his standing at the end of the year.

One area where I’ve been disappointed so far this spring has been wide receiver. A lot of that disappointment has to do with so many players being sidelined -- Quartney Davis, Kendrick Rogers, Roshauud Paul, Hezekiah Jones and Caleb Chapman have all missed part or all of the spring. Only Jhamon Ausbon and Camron Buckley have been out there for every practice, and more power to them.

For two of those players -- Jones and Paul -- this is a seriously missed opportunity. There are players coming who could threaten their spots; in the case of Paul, he’s already lost his in the two deep due to the shuffling of Davis to the slot. But there’s one other player who I thought might take advantage of this, and so far he hasn’t: Jalen Preston. Preston is running with the second team right now, which sounds fine if you don’t count the fact that five wideouts are sideline and a walk-on is running with the first team. Preston has a ton of physical gifts, to the point where I thought he was the best player in the state a couple years ago. He hasn’t been able to do much of anything so far at A&M, and I’m beginning to wonder if he ever will. I definitely hope he proves me wrong and fast, because he’s got talent to burn.

LT: Moore/Diesch

LG: Hocker/Matthews

C: McCollum/Clement

RG: Jenkins/Prater

RT: Green/Blanton

QB: Mond/Blumrick

RB: Corbin/Jackson

FB: Miles/?

TE: Cupp/Beal

X: Ausbon/Jones

Slot: Davis/Buckley

Z: Rogers/Buckley

“Big” DE: Clemons/Wright

DT: Madubuike/Diallo

DT: Peevy/Brown

“Fast” DE: Tyree Johnson/Martin

OLB: Buddy Johnson/Keaath Magee

MLB: Hines/White

Rover: Okeke/TBD

CB: Renfro/Morris

CB: Jones/Oliver

S: O’Neal/Carper

S: Tucker/Pryor

Nickel: Elam/Chattman

So the Aggies lost two out of three this weekend at Baton Rouge and dropped to 10th nationally. And I feel better about things.

Wait, what?

No, seriously. Look at it this way: they went on the road for four games against top-12 opponents last week and split. They beat Texas in Austin and took the second game of the 3-game set with LSU. They’re one bad inning away from going 3-1.

Hitting is going to be a struggle for this team against quality pitching. That’s pretty clear to me now. But they put up runs in Austin and did ok two out of three games in Baton Rouge. But the pitching and defense will keep them in games. We can be pretty sure of that now. If you go on the road and win at The Box, you’ve got a great ballclub. The Aggies aren’t great, but they’re really good. I think that they can compete with upper echelon teams and stay in the top 15 throughout the year. And who knows? If John Doxakis is able to match Ace-a (I mean, Asa) Lacy and the bats get a little warmer, they may be better than that. In any event, I think they’ll exceed preseason expectations, including my own.

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