Texas A&M spent the offseason raiding the transfer portal for defensive help, and one addition is starting to separate himself from the pack. According to On3's Pete Nakos, Northwestern transfer edge Anto Saka is expected to emerge as a top pass rusher for the Aggies heading into 2026.
Saka isn't a mystery name to anyone who follows the Big Ten. At 6-foot-4, 255 pounds, he racked up 12 sacks across 31 games over 3 seasons at Northwestern, including an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention campaign in 2024 that featured 3.5 sacks and 5 tackles for loss. He landed on Bruce Feldman's Freaks List for his athletic testing, and after a quieter statistical 2025 that still included 3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss and 2 forced fumbles, he became one of the more coveted edge rushers in the portal market before picking College Station.
That fit matters for Mike Elko, who has leaned hard into the portal to reload his roster and, per the report, added Saka as his 11th offseason acquisition. A&M's defense needs juice off the edge, and a player with Saka's first-step explosion gives Elko a legitimate answer there without having to wait on a true freshman to develop.
Nakos's report didn't stop at the defensive line. The same intel had a source telling On3 that wide receiver Terry Bussey has had a really strong summer, a notable line given how much A&M is counting on him in 2026.
Bussey enters his junior season after catching 18 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown last year, and he's already made one change that signals he sees a bigger role ahead: he swapped his jersey number from 2 to 6 for the new campaign. A strong camp from him would give the Aggies another weapon to pair with whoever's throwing the ball.
None of this is confirmed on the field yet — August reports are August reports, and fall camp still has to separate the real breakouts from the hype. But between a portal pass rusher already drawing first-round buzz from NFL scouts and a receiver trending up after an injury-shortened spring, Texas A&M has two names worth tracking as the Aggies round into shape for the season.