Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis remembers one particular play against Miami in the Cotton Bowl on Christmas Eve. The Buckeyes lost the game \u2014 and their hopes of repeating as national champions \u2014 but it was a moment when Sonny Styles flashed his smarts. Miami star receiver Malachi Toney, lined up in the slot, started a jet motion across the formation. Feeling that the jet sweep was coming, Styles shot the C-gap (outside the tackle) for a tackle for loss. “He has a really uncanny sense of when it\u2019s time to pull your trigger,” Laurinaitis told me. The NFL world is buzzing about Styles coming out of the combine, where he was one of the biggest risers in on-field drills. He showed world-class athleticism. The 6-foot-5, 244-pound linebacker registered a 43.5-inch vertical, a 4.46-second 40-yard dash and an 11-foot-2 broad jump in Indianapolis last week. Since 2003, he\u2019s the only player at least 230 pounds to run a sub-4.5 40 with a 40-plus inch vertical and an 11-foot-plus broad jump, according to NFL Research. The breathtaking numbers solidified his projection as a top-10 draft pick. [RELATED: Where Does Sonny Styles Rank Among Top NFL Prospects After the Combine?] But Laurinaitis pointed to Styles\u2019 approach and processing ability as evidence of his desire to be “special.” As the green dot in Ohio State\u2019s defense, Styles communicated everything. With the OSU offense on the field, the defensive coaching staff would watch the previous defensive series together on their tablets. By the time the coaches finished talking, Styles already had a tablet in hand, knowing the corrections that needed to be made. “I\u2019ll just go over to him and be like, \u2018Hey, you see play 3?’ [He\u2019s like,] \u2018Yeah, I already saw. I have to get here or so-and-so has got to get here, or maybe I should make this stunt call,\u2019” Laurinaitis told me. “It\u2019s already been processed in his brain, so it\u2019s more collaborative. “He didn\u2019t need a ton of reps at practice to go see [a tweak]. He would just go in the next series, and you could expect him to adjust and start changing up the stunts just because he\u2019s super smart.” A five-star recruit in high school, Styles played his first two college seasons as a safety. But Laurinaitis, who was an OSU graduate assistant in 2023, never projected him as a safety at the NFL level. He saw a future first-round pick as an “elite cover linebacker.” He\u2019d tell him, too. Laurinaitis, the former NFL linebacker and Ohio State great, saw Styles as a player with the size and skills to make a seamless transition. Over the past two years as a linebacker, Styles recorded 182 tackles (17 for loss), seven sacks, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles and an interception. “Every NFL person I\u2019ve talked to about Sonny Styles, I\u2019ve said, \u2018Look, he\u2019s only played linebacker two seasons of his entire life,\u2019” Laurinaitis told me. “So you\u2019re getting a guy who\u2019s going to get way more comfortable [because] the game is finally slowing down for him at that level on the defense. You\u2019re not getting a fully formed guy yet, which I think is very scary.” One of Laurinaitis\u2019 favorite memories of Styles last season was his game against Michigan, which the Buckeyes beat to snap a four-game losing streak against their bitter rival. He saw Styles\u2019 physicality hit a new gear. “He just felt like he couldn\u2019t be blocked,” Laurinaitis said. “Every block that he was taking on, it was like he was letting it be known. It was the most I\u2019d seen him kind of talk trash, and it was just like he played big boy football that day. And it continued on against Indiana [in the Big Ten title game]. He was in a stretch of games at the end of the season where you could just tell the physicality and violence he was playing with.” In addition to Styles being an incredible athlete, Laurinaitis said the team that drafts him will also be getting a “first class” individual. “He balances that looseness of clowning around and having fun with the guys with this seriousness of locking in and when to lock in,” Laurinaitis told me. “He has a good feel for both. So you\u2019re never too uptight at practice, but I think he\u2019s tuned into what\u2019s happening to everybody around him. He\u2019s always paying attention. He\u2019s always inquiring. “He\u2019ll be at every single community outreach and charity function that an organization does. And then you match all the freakish athletic ability to it with the work ethic, you\u2019re like, \u2018Holy smokes, no wonder this dude is such a special talent and person.\u2019”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis remembers one particular play against Miami in the Cotton Bowl on Christmas Eve. The Buckeyes lost the game \u2014 and their hopes of repeating as national champions \u2014 but it was a moment when Sonny Styles flashed his smarts. Miami star receiver Malachi Toney, lined up in the slot,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}