Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters said he didn’t think former Ohio State LB Sonny Styles would be available when they got on the clock for the seventh overall pick. It was an easy decision for the team, and he said Styles checked all the boxes as a person and as a football player.
“Sonny checks all the boxes right away, and just in terms of the person, the football character, the intelligence. Everything you would want off the field. Leadership, you talk about the guys at Ohio State,
the coaches, his teammates, they all revere him as a person, as a young man.
And then obviously you see the type of specimen he is. He’s 6-5, he runs a 4.4. He’s an incredible sideline-to-sideline defender. A guy who’s for today’s NFL. He makes the field smaller, he can blitz, he cover, he can tackle, he does everything really well.
So for us it was a pretty easy decision when he was still on the board. The pick was…didn’t have to think too hard when he was still there.“
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer provided some more insight into the vetting that the Commanders did to come to their decision on Styles. Peters was the assistant GM for the San Francisco 49ers before getting hired by Washington. One of his area scouts pointed Styles, then a freshman safety, out to him while they attended an Ohio State game 4 years ago. Styles played safety for the Buckeyes for two seasons, starting in his second, before switching to linebacker for his final two seasons.
Washington GM Adam Peters’ awareness of Styles goes all the way back to Styles’ freshman year, when he was at an Ohio State game as a 49ers exec with an area scout, who simply said to him, “That’s Sonny Styles,” as if everyone should know who he was. That’s the sort of recruit Styles was, arriving at age 17 after graduating high school a year early, even at a school chock full of blue-chippers. Styles became a starter the next year, in what would’ve been his true freshman season, and his first of three years starting. Peters took a mental note of the tall, lanky, big-framed defender.
Peters also reached into his extensive list of connections that includes executives, coaches, and trainers to get some more insight on Styles. That included Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia who he worked with on the New England Patriots’ staff from 2004-08. Breer also mentions the pro-style defense Patricia runs giving head coach Dan Quinn, and new defensive coordinator Daronte Jones a better look at how Styles’ play could work in the NFL.
Peters and Ohio State DC Matt Patricia were coworkers two decades ago in New England and they talked a lot over the last few months, and Patricia told the GM what an incredible communicator, teammate and person Styles was. Patricia’s pro-style scheme also gave Quinn and new DC Daronte Jones (who worked under ex-Patricia colleague Brian Flores in Minnesota) a real look on tape at how Styles would fit into an NFL defense.
The Commanders didn’t hide their interest in Sonny Styles during the pre-draft process, meeting with him at least three times, and Breer provided some insight into what Washington saw in their future 1st-round pick. Ohio State had several players expected to get drafted on Day 1 of the draft, and they spoke with all of them at the Combine. These interviews focus on the players, but Styles’ teammates also talked about him, and the leader he was on the team during their final season playing together. Character matters to this organization, and that reaffirmed that he was “the guy on the 2025 team”.
Styles also has a reputation for being a highly intelligent player on and off the field. He studies the game, his opponents, and used that knowledge, along with his incredible athletic gifts, to become a top player in college, and just the sixth linebacker (Isaiah Simmons, Devin White, Devin Bush, Roquan Smith, Luke Kuechly) to go in the top 10 since the rookie salary scale was instituted with the 2011 CBA. Styles knows the scheme inside and out, and knows his responsibilities in it, along with his teammates’. Breer said this confirmed to Washington that he was the alpha, and had elite football knowledge. There has been a lot of speculation about who will wear the green dot now that Bobby Wagner isn’t part of the team, and these traits are reason why Styles, even though he’s a rookie, has been talked about for that role in the new defense.
Then came the Commanders’ annual TopGolf outing that brings together a group of prospects, and puts them in a more informal setting to see how they interact with each other, the coaches, scouts, and the staff. Four of the six players that Washington drafted were in attendance, but only two of them were reported beforehand(Styles, Kaliakmanis). Styles reportedly was a hit at the event, asking the right questions and getting to know the people that he could be working with for years to come. Linebackers coaches Ken Norton Jr and George Banko loved him, and Breer made a point to say how much time Norton spent with him that day, “everyone joked that Norton was so engaged with Styles that he wasn’t going to let anyone else talk to him.”
Everything worked out in the end for Styles and the Commanders. The board fell the right way with the Giants passing on him and the Chiefs trading in front of Washington to draft LSU CB Mansoor Delane. Styles will be given every opportunity to succeed here, and his position has a big void after Bobby Wagner, who played 100% of the snaps for two seasons, wasn’t brought back.
