{"id":259883,"date":"2025-12-30T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=259883"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T00:11:18","slug":"sonny-styles-2026-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/30\/sonny-styles-2026-nfl-draft-early-scouting-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Styles 2026 NFL Draft Early Scouting Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sonny Styles has been a top contributor for arguably the best defense in the country this season. His scouting report<\/a> evaluates what makes Styles one of the top linebackers in college football and how well his skill set might translate to the NFL.<\/p>\n

Sonny Styles 2026 NFL Draft Early Scouting Report<\/h2>\n

Measurables:<\/h3>\n

Height- 6’5″<\/p>\n

Weight- 243 lbs<\/p>\n

Background:<\/h3>\n

Styles attended Pickerington Central High School in Pickerington, Ohio. He was a multi-sport star in high school, helping his team with the basketball state championship while also being a five-star recruit<\/a> in football. Styles was ranked the 27th best overall recruit in the class of 2022, according to 247Sports<\/em>, and opted to stay in-state, committing to Ohio State<\/a>. He started his college career as a safety, playing 10 games his freshman season, and became a starter in 2023, playing in 13 games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Styles switched to linebacker<\/a> in 2024 and broke out as one of the star players on the defense, finishing second on the team in total tackles and third in tackles for loss. He helped Ohio State win the National Championship and finish as the top-ranked scoring defense in the country. In 2025, Styles once again is one of the top players on the top-ranked scoring defense in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strengths:<\/h3>\n

Styles has good arm length and incredible size for the position at 6-foot-5 and 243 pounds. He has great athletic ability as well and tremendous range. Styles is a really strong run defender. He is able to quickly read and react, and has great downhill speed. Styles is a very reliable tackler as well. He is able to consistently make difficult tackles in space and rarely misses tackles. Styles has good play strength and does a good job at taking on blockers. With his speed, change of direction ability, length, and experience at safety, Styles also stands out in pass coverage. He has the ability to be great in both zone coverage and man coverage at the next level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n

Styles doesn’t usually play like it, but he does still have just two years of experience playing the linebacker position. While he quickly became one of the top linebackers in college football, there is still room for Styles to grow at the position. Most notably, he can occasionally be overly aggressive and end up out of position, especially against play action.<\/p>\n

NFL Projection:<\/h3>\n

Styles has all the physical tools needed to become a high-level starting linebacker in the NFL. He has elite size and arm length for the position, paired with great athletic ability. Styles also only has two years of experience at linebacker and is already one of the top linebackers in college football. As he continues to gain more experience at the position, there could be a lot more room for Styles to develop even more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Styles has the ability to be an effective starting linebacker in the NFL early in his career, even with just a few years of experience at the position. He also has the physical tools, IQ, run defense ability, coverage ability, and motor to potentially develop into one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Styles is currently projected to be a first-round pick<\/a> in the draft<\/a> and one of the first linebackers off the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sonny Styles scouting report. A look at the strengths, weaknesses, and NFL projection of the athletic 2026 NFL Draft linebacker prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5467,"featured_media":258307,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,33760],"tags":[33533,1649,33921],"class_list":["post-259883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-profiles","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-sonny-styles"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259883"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260825,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259883\/revisions\/260825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}