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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - DECEMBER 06: Sonny Styles #0 of the Ohio State Buckeyes in action against the Indiana Hoosiers in the 2025 Big Ten Football Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 06, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
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The New York Giants’ plans in the 2026 NFL Draft are coming into sharper focus.
According to NJ.com’s Art Stapleton, the Giants met with Ohio State star linebacker Sonny Styles in Indianapolis, further fueling speculation that the versatile defender could be firmly in play at No. 5 overall. The meeting underscores how seriously New York is evaluating a position it has historically deprioritized early in the draft.
Styles has emerged as one of the most discussed defensive prospects in the 2026 class, and his combination of size, range, and coverage ability makes him a rare off-ball linebacker prospect with legitimate top-five consideration.
With the Giants holding a premium pick and continuing to reshape their defensive identity under the new staff, the connection is gaining traction.
Giants Showing Real Interest in Sonny Styles at No. 5
The NFL Combine meeting signals more than routine homework — it highlights a potential philosophical shift.
The Giants have long avoided spending elite draft capital on off-ball linebackers, but Styles is widely viewed as an outlier prospect at the position. A former safety who transitioned to linebacker, he offers coverage range, leadership traits, and three-down versatility that modern defenses covet.
What makes Styles stand out is his high tackling rate, as he finished the 2025 season with a missed tackle rate of just 2.2%. His lone missed tackle came in the CFP quarterfinal matchup against Miami, in which the Buckeyes fell to the Hurricanes 24-14 in a season-ending loss.
His safety background clearly shows through his coverage, in which his 86.9 PFF grade ranks 11th among 804 FBS linebackers in 2025. His 5.6% negatively graded play rate in coverage is similar to Fred Warner’s collegiate marks, and his size and versatility make him a matchup nightmare, capable of stopping the run, getting to the quarterback, or working horizontally in zone coverage.
He also fits what the Giants’ new defensive structure appears to prioritize: communication, range in space, and run-fit discipline. Styles operated as the defensive signal-caller at Ohio State and showed dramatic tackling improvement in 2025, missing just one tackle all season.
That profile aligns with what the Giants have lacked in the middle of their defense. New York ranked near the bottom of the NFL in run defense last season, and adding a true three-down linebacker has been viewed internally as a potential priority.
Meeting with Styles at the Combine places the Giants squarely among the teams most closely evaluating him near the top of the board.
Staying at No. 5 Could Make Styles a True Option
The key question is whether the Giants would actually select an off-ball linebacker that high — and the answer is increasingly trending toward “possible.”
Analysts have already placed Styles inside the top five of the 2026 class, with some boards ranking him exactly in the Giants’ draft range.
His appeal is rooted in scheme impact rather than traditional positional value. Styles can play MIKE, cover tight ends and backs, and function as a defensive communicator — the type of centerpiece linebacker modern defenses are built around.
If the Giants remain at No. 5, several premium positions will be in play — edge, tackle, and corner among them — but Styles represents a different type of selection: a defensive centerpiece rather than a trench piece.
John Harbaugh supported the notion of possibly taking an off-ball linebacker at five, saying, “The inside linebacker isn’t always considered a value position but you can’t stop the run without an inside linebacker making tackles in the middle. You can’t do it. That becomes pretty important.”
That distinction is why his name continues to surface around New York’s pick. The Giants are evaluating foundational defenders across the board, and Styles fits the profile of a tone-setting centerpiece in the middle of the defense.
With the NFL Combine meeting now confirmed, the idea of the Giants targeting Sonny Styles at No. 5 is no longer speculative — it’s firmly on the draft radar.