{"id":715398,"date":"2026-01-30T02:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715398\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:06:39","slug":"scintillating-defender-heads-to-carolina-panthers-in-ideal-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/715398\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Scintillating’ Defender Heads to Carolina Panthers in Ideal Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, Danny Kelly <\/a>of The Ringer presented his 2026 NFL draft. The Carolina Panthers<\/a> own the 19th overall pick in April, quite a change from a year ago when a 5-12 finish resulted in the franchise owning the eighth selection. The team has used first-round picks on wide receivers in both 2024 (Xavier Legette) and 2025 (Tetairoa McMillan). Kelly has them adding some talent on the other side of the ball via the addition of versatile defender <\/a>Sonny Styles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Panthers address their linebacker group here by grabbing the rangy Styles<\/a>,\u201d said Kelly, \u201cThe Buckeyes \u2019backer brings a scintillating combination of athleticism and length, and he\u2019s always around the ball. Styles racked up 21.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks, nine passes defensed, and three forced fumbles over the past three seasons for Ohio State. He\u2019s comfortable in space, can play both the pass and the run, and is explosive when closing on the ballcarrier.”<\/p>\n

\"Sonny<\/p>\n

Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker Sonny Styles (0) pressures Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) during the Big Ten Conference championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Dec. 6, 2025. Ohio State lost 13-10. | Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The safety\/tuned linebacker played in 53 games for the Buckeyes<\/a>, and his big year came during Ohio State\u2019s national championship campaign in 2024. In 16 outings, he amassed 100 tackles, six sacks, five passes defensed, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery. The 6\u20195\u201d, 243-pound performer <\/a>had drawn comparisons (via NFL.com\u2019s Lance Zierlein<\/a>) to San Francisco 49ers\u2019 star Fred Warner.<\/p>\n

Carolina\u2019s defense did a much better job against the run in 2025, allowing 123.3 yards per game. That was quite the contrast from the previous season, in which Dave Canales\u2019s club surrendered an NFL-high 179.8 yards per outing on the ground. And adding a performer like Styles brings a big-game performer to a team that just reached the playoffs this season for the first time since 2017.<\/p>\n

– Enjoy more free Panthers coverage with Carolina Panthers on SI –<\/p>\n

5 Panther free agents who absolutely must be re-signed<\/a><\/p>\n

Potential Panthers FA target dubbed player to avoid<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Kenyon Sadiq is perfect draft fit for Carolina Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers 1.0 mock draft after playoff elimination<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, Danny Kelly of The Ringer presented his 2026 NFL draft. The Carolina Panthers own the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-715398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115981608818096590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}