{"id":788117,"date":"2026-03-03T03:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T03:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/788117\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T03:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T03:12:13","slug":"ohio-state-linebacker-makes-huge-statement-at-nfl-draft-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/788117\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State linebacker makes huge statement at NFL Draft Combine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles<\/a> delivered a performance that had NFL and content creators<\/a> raving on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sonny measured at 6-foot, 5-inches and 244 pounds, posted a 43 1\/2-inch vertical jump, which was second only to Cameron Wake amongst all linebackers since 2003, and was actually the best mark by an off-ball linebacker. But he wasn’t done there either. Sonny then led all participants on Thursday with an 11-foot-2 broad jump and a 4.46-second 40-yard dash. He also tied former Buckeye teammate Arvell Reese<\/a> for fastest time among linebackers at this year’s event.<\/p>\n

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The numbers are even more impressive when you look at them in a historical context. NFL research noted he’s the only player since 2003<\/a> to run a sub-4.5 40 combined with a vertical of at least 40 inches and a broad jump of 11-plus feet at 230 pounds or heavier.<\/p>\n

He was not asked to leap tall buildings in a single-bound, but might have done that too if given the chance<\/p>\n

Reactions around the league and media were immediate. One national outlet called Sonny’s performance arguably the most thrilling performance by a linebacker in 30 years. Former NFL scout and current analyst Daniel Jeremiah said Styles “crashed the party,” forcing his way into potential top of the draft pick territory. ESPN’s Mel Kiper has Styles as a projected top-10 pick and the No. 7 overall player on his board. Kiper also wrote that his speed, burst, and closing ability made him a candidate to “dominate” pre-draft testing.<\/p>\n

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The top 10 projection seemed quite impressive for the Ohio State linebacker, but now, after his NFL draft combine performance, it may very well be too conservative.<\/p>\n

Contact\/Follow us @BuckeyesWire<\/a> on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: Did this Ohio state linebacker become a top 5 pick after NFL combine?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles delivered a performance that had NFL and content creators raving on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2222,46634,5430,4919,7,467,4135,14,700,6,1446,10229,3934,2239,110341],"class_list":["post-788117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arvell-reese","tag-cameron-wake","tag-davante-adams","tag-derwin-james","tag-football","tag-george-pickens","tag-linebacker","tag-mel-kiper","tag-mike-evans","tag-nfl","tag-ohio-state","tag-patrick-peterson","tag-performance","tag-sonny-styles","tag-vertical-jump"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116163061068293684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788117","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=788117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}