The Cincinnati Bengals met with Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles in the first half of his NFL Scouting Combine week. He forced everyone’s eyes to try and follow where he was going during the on-field testing portion Thursday afternoon.
Styles, who measured in at 6-5 and 244 pounds, was one of the definitive winners from the first day of on-field testing. He ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, and jumped 43.5″ and 134″ in the vertical and broad jumps, respectively. His three-cone of 7.09 and short shuttle of 4.26 sealed the deal on one of the best combine performances we’ve seen from a LB.
It was so good, you have to wonder if the Bengals will be able to draft Styles at all now.
Sonny Styles just primed himself to be a top-10 NFL Draft pick
The combine is said to be a convention for confirming. NFL Draft hopefuls confirm their backgrounds, medical checks, and from a public-facing perspective, their athleticism.
Styles seemed to accomplish all three in style.
Styles entered the week as the No. 12 player on the A to Z Sports Mock Draft Database. Thursday confirmed he will not last any longer than 12 picks when the draft comes around.
Cincinnati knew the former five-star recruit was already a top prospect. Other clubs picking in and around the first 10 selections knew to check Styles out and get to know him. What all 32 clubs saw was a 21-year old elite athlete from a major college program pass every test with flying colors.
Advertisement
In a draft without a lot of blue chip players, Styles should be considered one of the best. There’s good reason to think he won’t make it to Cincinnati’s No. 10 pick in the first round.
The New York Giants (No. 5), Washington Commanders (No. 7), and Kansas City Chiefs (No. 9) are all teams ahead of the Bengals in the draft order that have been consistently slotted defensive players in mock drafts this offseason. Styles even went No. 7 to Washington in our latest 3-round mock before the drills began.
Imagining Styles making it past all three teams after he proved his otherworldliness on top of who he is as a player on tape is simply unrealistic at this point. He’s no longer a backup plan if the top pass rushers and former teammate Caleb Downs is taken in the first nine picks. He’s going to be picked that early unless the position he plays deters those teams from making him one of the highest-paid rookies of this class.
Isaiah Simmons was the last off-ball LB drafted with a top-10 pick in 2020. Simmons lasted three years with his original team after going off the board No. 8 overall and is now a safety. Devin White was drafted No. 5 the top-10 in 2019 and was a Pro Bowler for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but just played on a veteran minimum deal for the Las Vegas Raiders. Devin Bush was the No. 10 pick in that same class and only recently started playing up to that status. Roquan Smith was the No. 8 pick in 2018 and has earned a top of the market contract from the Baltimore Ravens.
It can be tricky drafting a true backer so early, and no team has pulled the trigger since the start of the decade. Styles may’ve done enough to become the next, and barring an unlikely trade up, the Bengals will be watching it happen.
Advertisement
window.addEventListener(‘message’, function (event) {if (event.data.totalpoll && event.data.totalpoll.action === ‘resizeHeight’) {document.querySelector(‘#totalpoll-iframe-359’).height = event.data.totalpoll.value;}}, false);document.querySelector(‘#totalpoll-iframe-359’).contentWindow.postMessage({totalpoll: {action: ‘requestHeight’}}, ‘*’);
This story was originally published by A to Z Sports on Feb 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.