Sonny Styles’s play at Ohio State made him one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class and his chances of being one of the first names called in April were given another boost with Thursday’s performance at the Scouting Combine.
Styles ran the fastest 40-yard dash of any linebacker at 4.46 seconds and he also posted the highest vertical and broad jumps of the day. According to ESPN research, Styles’s 43.5-inch vertical leap was the best by any linebacker since 2003.
Styles’s Ohio State teammate Arvell Reese is also set to be an early pick and he split his work between linebacker and edge rusher during drills on Thursday. He matched the 4.46 time in the 40, but did not do the jumps or other events in Indianapolis.
David Bailey also helped his cause. He ran a 4.5 40, which was behind only Reese among aspiring edge players and the Texas Tech star had a 35-inch vertical leap in Thursday’s workout.
Rueben Bain joins Bailey and Reese among the top edge rusher prospects, but he did not work out on Thursday.
