Added<\/a> cornerback Amik Robertson: \u201cStyles!!!!!? He special !!!\u201d<\/p>\nYet Styles\u2019 greatest strengths may be the intangible parts of his game. He can quickly diagnose offenses and react accordingly, rarely appearing as a player with minimal experience at the position. He was also voted a team captain and given the prestigious \u201cBlock O\u201d jersey last year, awarded annually at Ohio State to the player who exemplifies toughness, accountability and high character. And, much like quarterback Jayden Daniels, who impressed the Commanders with his drastic improvement in college, Styles\u2019 growth at linebacker and \u201cdesire to be great\u201d solidified the team\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really driven, has the desire to be great and wants to be great for us,\u201d Peters said. \u201cA lot of guys try to sell themselves, and rightfully so \u2014 it\u2019s a job interview. But his was genuine. His was real. He was very comfortable in what he said and so it makes you really confident that he\u2019s going to do everything he can to be great for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Commanders can only hope Styles becomes the leader they sorely need for the defense, a group that was often a liability the last two years and had been overhauled this offseason.<\/p>\n
Peters said the Commanders ran through multiple scenarios ahead of the draft in case they received offers to trade down in the first round. But his phone stayed silent Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrickets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a year with so much uncertainty surrounding most of the top prospects, Peters admitted last week that even he knew very little about how the draft would play out. Fernando Mendoza, the former Indiana quarterback, appeared a lock to go No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders, but there was no consensus on how the rest of the top 10 would unfold.<\/p>\n
The odds of Styles still being available at No. 7 seemed minimal. But once wide receiver Carnell Tate, Styles\u2019 former teammate at Ohio State, was taken by the Tennessee Titans at No. 4, edge rusher Arvell Reese \u2014 another former Buckeye \u2014 went to the New York Giants at No. 5 and cornerback Mansoor Delane headed to Kansas City after a trade at No. 6, excitement filled the Commanders\u2019 draft war room in Ashburn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just like, \u2018OK, we got this,\u2019\u201d Peters said. \u201cSo that was kind of the moment. \u2026\u00a0 But we felt really good with whoever was going to come to us, and we just got a little bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters was thrilled to stand pat and take a player he and coach Dan Quinn believe will be a difference-maker \u2014 a belief they held after meeting him at Ohio State\u2019s pro day in Columbus in late March and again after hosting him on a visit to Ashburn last week.<\/p>\n
Styles was part of the Commanders\u2019 now-annual group \u201ctop-30\u201d visit, in which they flew in more than 20 draft prospects to meet individually with the coaching staff before spending an evening as a group at Topgolf. It\u2019s a strategy Peters brought with him from San Francisco, meant to allow staffers to get to know players in one-on-one settings, then see how they interact together as a group.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take much to know that Styles had exactly what they were looking for in a future draft pick. Peters described the 21-year-old as \u201cmature beyond his years\u201d and \u201cdriven,\u201d noting both his humility and confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know you\u2019re going to get an outstanding person in this building, an outstanding competitor, outstanding football character, everything across the board,\u201d Peters said. \u201cHe\u2019s just kind of everything you want there as a football player and a guy in your building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turns out, Styles was especially driven to return to Washington. When his phone rang as he sat inside the NFL\u2019s green room in Pittsburgh, Styles answered with a mix of nerves and excitement.<\/p>\n
Peters then congratulated him on becoming a Commander, before passing the phone to Quinn and owner Josh Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything just felt right,\u201d Styles said moments after getting the call. \u201c\u2026 Every meeting just felt like it was it. I left the building (last week) and I was like, \u2018Man, I feel like I\u2019m going to be a Commander.\u2019 I\u2019m excited it happened. It\u2019s the perfect place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHBURN, Va. \u2014 He told his family early Thursday that he was going to be a Washington Commander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-873297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116457772404842184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873297","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=873297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}