The Washington Commanders spent the offseason rebuilding their defense. Then they struck gold on draft night. With the No. 7 overall pick, they grabbed Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles and instantly gave Dan Quinn the kind of athlete every coordinator dreams about.
Quinn sat down with the Rich Eisen Show and didn’t hold back. “I think it’s rare,” he said of the 6-foot-5, 244-pound linebacker. “This type of linebacker — the athletic traits, the speed, the size, the length — it’s not an every-year player.”
“I’m a developmental coach — I can’t wait to coach him. He’s hungry for it; he wants to improve.”— Dan Quinn on Sonny Styles
Styles showed up in Indianapolis and delivered numbers that still have scouts buzzing. He ran a 4.46-second 40-yard dash that tied for the fastest among linebackers. His 1.56-second 10-yard split matched the top mark at the position. Then he leaped 43½ inches in the vertical — the highest for any linebacker — and stretched out an 11-foot-2-inch broad jump.
Those numbers weren’t flukes. They confirmed what tape already showed: a long, fast defender who can cover ground like a safety and hit like a traditional linebacker.
| Metric | Sonny Styles Result | Position Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 40-Yard Dash | 4.46 seconds | Tied 1st (LB) |
| 10-Yard Split | 1.56 seconds | Tied 1st (LB) |
| Vertical Jump | 43.5 inches | 1st (LB) |
| Broad Jump | 11 feet 2 inches | 1st (LB) |
Styles didn’t start out as a linebacker. He spent his first couple of seasons at Ohio State playing safety before sliding down to the second level in 2024. The move paid off in a big way. Over his final two college seasons, he piled up 182 tackles, 17 for loss, seven sacks, two forced fumbles, one interception and eight pass breakups.
You could see the light go on once he got reps at linebacker. Quinn noticed it too. “Seeing his first couple years at DB and then shifting down to linebacker at the start of the 2024 season, I just felt like this guy’s gonna take off.”
The coach even floated the idea of handing Styles the green dot as a rookie — the signal that tells the defense what to do. “He is definitely capable of that,” Quinn said. The plan includes dropping him into zone coverage where his speed and length can close on the ball in a hurry. They also plan to unleash him as a blitzer, something he didn’t do much at Ohio State because of teammate Arvell Reese.
Styles’ background as a former safety gives him the football IQ to handle it all. Quinn loves the fit in today’s positionless back seven. “He has such unique traits to him,” the coach added. “We will align him, how we can do that.”
Washington fans who watched the defense struggle last season know what this means. Styles isn’t just another body. He’s the kind of player who can make plays in the run game, drop into coverage, and create turnovers. If he comes anywhere close to the level of San Francisco’s Fred Warner, Quinn’s excitement makes perfect sense.
You can picture it already — Styles flying sideline to sideline, erasing tight ends in the middle of the field, and pressuring quarterbacks on designed blitzes. The Commanders’ defense just got a whole lot more dangerous.
