PFF's mock draft projects the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will land Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles, a potential cornerstone with elite coverage and run-stopping skills to bolster their defense.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers know their defense must be better in 2026, and one of the best ways to build it is in the NFL Draft.
Pro Football Focus' mock draft currently has the Bucs picking national champion Ohio State's Sonny Styles. The Buckeye linebacker played a lot of football in Columbus, becoming a regular contributor as a sophomore in 2023.
The next season, Styles finished with 100 tackles; then, as a senior, he was named a first-team All-American.
Styles comes from a football family -- his father, Lorenzo, was an All-Big Ten performer at Ohio State in the 1990s and before playing six seasons in the NFL, where he won a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
If Sonny Styles performs as well in the NFL as he has in college, he'll have a superior career.
In explaining why Styles would make sense for the Bucs at pick No. 15, PFF notes the team's current starting linebacker, 14-year veteran and franchise cornerstone Lavonte David, is not what he used to be.
"Lavonte David finally began to decline at nearly 36 years old this season," PFF wrote, "but the Buccaneers still have no succession plan at linebacker. Enter Styles, who was one of only six linebackers in the nation to earn 85.0-plus grades both in coverage and in run defense."
Tampa's defense finished 20th in the league in scoring, with the unit's lowest point coming against the Atlanta Falcons in December, when the Bucs coughed up a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter.
Speaking with reporters after the season, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles made it clear that while he will continue to run the defense, some changes with schemes and personnel will be necessary.
"Schematically, I know I need to make some changes, depending on the players that we have coming back," Bowles told reporters in a Jan. 10 press conference. "Coaching-wise, we need to make some changes as a whole as far as what we’re doing on the field and how we’re teaching guys certain things.
"Certain guys are probably good at certain things [and] we need to expose more of their good side as opposed to things that they’re struggling with."
There's a lot of time between now and late April, when the draft gets underway, but there's no reason to think Styles can't be a star in the NFL.
Styles' college coach, Ryan Day, called him "one of the best-looking linebackers since I've been here" in an interview with ESPN's Adam Rittenberg this past summer, and Day's praise of Styles dates back to his freshman season.
"To say that he's overachieved is an understatement," Day said in October 2022. "He's earned the respect of everyone here."
The NFL Draft is scheduled for April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.
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