How the Carolina Panthers Can Draft Sonny Styles

The Carolina Panthers have several needs on defense, including edge rusher and off-ball linebacker. A player projected to go in the top half of the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles. Styles, who started his collegiate career as a safety, stands 6’ 4” while weighing in at 243 pounds. He finished 2025 with 77 tackles, seven tackles for loss, one sack, three pass breakups, one interception, and one forced fumble.

With the Panthers drafting at No. 19, general manager Dan Morgan will likely have to move up in the draft to select Styles. While off-ball linebacker has been devalued when it comes to drafting players high in the draft, a playmaking linebacker lining up behind defensive tackle Derrick Brown would be a massive boost to a defense that is need of more splash plays from their defensive front seven.

The Panthers have seven picks in the upcoming draft – one pick each in the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth rounds, and two picks in the fifth.

But how does Morgan move up in the draft without sacrificing too many other assets? Here’s one avenue.

The spot to move up would be to the Los Angeles Rams at pick No. 13 (which they acquired from the Atlanta Falcons), assuming that Styles is still there.

Using a draft value chart – which assigns a numeric value to each pick in the draft – Carolina could use creative ways to move up in the first round.

The value of the 13th pick is 1150, whereas the value of the 19th pick is 875. So how does Carolina make up that delta of 275? Pick 83 (third round), pick 119 (fourth round), pick 156 (fifth), and pick 198 (sixth) would make up that difference, but that’s way too many picks to give up.

Another option is using pick swaps in both the first and second rounds.

Carolina would trade: pick 19 (875 value), pick 51 (390), pick 83 (175) = 1440 value

Rams would trade: pick 13 (1150), pick 61 (292) = 1442 value

While the value is off by two points, both teams can benefit. The Rams would move down six slots in the first round, but move up in the second and gain an extra third.

Carolina would still have picks in each of the first two rounds, get an off-ball linebacker that can start and make an immediate impact, keep all future draft picks while only giving up a third-round pick this year in the process.

The Panthers and Rams have traded with one another in recent draft, and the two sides had been in discussions about trading for the No. 8 pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

We saw Dan Morgan last year use four pick swaps to move up in the second round to draft OLB Nic Scourton, so a move like this wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.