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College Football All-American Puts Up 'Insane' Numbers Early at NFL Combine

NFL Combine season has come, and will make college football standouts into millionaires.
Joe Cox|
Ohio State LB Sonny Styles was the talk of the NFL Combine after his performance on Thursday.
Ohio State LB Sonny Styles was the talk of the NFL Combine after his performance on Thursday. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Ohio State Buckeyes

After seasons of football, one of the biggest tests for college football stars heading to the NFL is the Combine. From jumps to sprints to lifts, activities tangential to football and performed in shorts separate great prospects from good and good from great.

One prospect who was already highly regarded had an amazing day at the Combine and boosted his NFL Draft stock. Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles had already proven that he is a standout on the field, but now he's a standout in the Combine.

Styles's Big Day

Styles's performance was astonishing. The 6'5", 244 pound linebacker ran his 40-yard dash at 4.46 seconds. He also was measured at 11'2" in the broad jump, which ties for fourth all-time among linebackers in the history of the Combine, which dates back to 1982. But Styles's 43.5" vertical jump actually made history as the best mark ever by a linebacker. In fact, it's the best vertical from a prospect 6'4" or taller since 2003.

The NFL itself hailed Styles's "insane numbers" on Thursday.

Styles has already been a highly-regarded player. A five-star recruit in the class of 2022, Styles was ranked as the No. 2 safety prospect in the nation when he inked with Ohio State. Styles made the jump from safety to linebacker after two seasons and played his best at his new spot.

For his OSU career, Styles finished with 244 tackles, including 22.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks. He also broke up 10 passes, with one interception. Styles's 2024 season might have been his best, when Ohio State won the national title as Styles racked up 100 tackles with 10.5 tackles for loss and six sacks.

NFL Future for Styles

Styles's physicality and impressive skill set (see combine numbers above) had already made him a highly regarded NFL Draft prospect. Mock Drafts have generally projected Styles in the middle of the first round, with the most common recent projection being to the Dallas Cowboys with the 12th pick.

But a performance like Thursday's will likely send Styles's Draft stock even higher. A top ten selection is certainly not outside the realm of possibility for the OSU standout. Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese was generally regarded as a slightly higher-ranked prospect than Styles, but after Thursday, that conclusion is definitely up in the air.

What's not up in the air is that Styles put on a performance to remember and likely earned himself signficantly more money in the process.

Reese
Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese entered the Combine as the more highly regarded prospect, but Sonny Styles's big day might lift him above his Ohio State teammate in the Draft. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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