Auburn football’s Keldric Faulk has been projected as high as inside the top 10 on several 2026 NFL mock drafts.

However, none of those things matter to the Tigers defender who finished with seven sacks and led Auburn in pressures while ranking eighth in the SEC.

“Don’t deal with it. I take every day and deal with it every day like I’ve been doing. I don’t worry about the NFL or worry about any of that. I worry about the 2025-2026 season with the Auburn Tigers,” Faulk said during SEC media days.

Heading into this season, all the noise surrounding the Tigers offseason has been team expectations and Auburn coach Hugh Freeze being on the hot seat.

For Faulk, the hot seat term did not sit well with him knowing his respect level for Freeze.

“I do take that personally. Coach deserves this job, and it’s up to us now to — not to keep this going,” Faulk said.

“Coach has put some of the best people around us, whether it be coaching staff, players that he’s brought in. So, he’s brought in his own players, his own coaching staff. Now it’s up to us to go out there and execute.”

When discussing the pressure put on Auburn to succeed, Faulk says it only adds fuel to the fire for the Tigers roster.

“I feel like it’s a lot of outside pressure on us just because of the past two seasons, but I feel like our team is so much confident, so much more confident than they were in the past couple years,” Faulk added.

“I don’t feel like — nobody on the team is overwhelmed with the pressure. I feel like we’re embracing it because that’s what we want. And our expectations for ourselves is even greater than the expectations that people have for us.”

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3or email him at [email protected].