The Commanders remade their franchise two years ago when they drafted quarterback Jayden Daniels, an even-keeled leader who’s a competitive menace on the field. Washington’s leaders think they found his defensive mirror in rookie linebacker Sonny Styles.
Styles, the No. 7 pick in this year’s draft, is early in the process. This week’s mandatory minicamp, which began Tuesday, was another showcase for the highly touted rookie.
“Sonny’s big as hell,” defensive tackle Johnny Newton said of his new teammate. “He’s good. Early in the building, early on the field, I just know he cares a lot about the game.”
The dedication has been a necessity for Styles, who has been wearing a green dot on his helmet as a defensive signal-caller. It’s a steep ask for the Ohio State product, one that he’s more than happy to take on.
“I have high expectations for myself, so expectations from other people don’t really bother me,” Styles said Tuesday.
Learning a new defensive system hasn’t caught Styles off guard, nor has the increased emphasis on communication in Washington. The Commanders hired Daronte Jones as their new defensive coordinator, and he brought a disguise-heavy scheme with him from Minnesota Vikings play-caller Brian Flores.
But it places plenty of responsibility on its defenders, especially linebackers like Styles who are expected to disguise their intentions pre-snap before dropping into coverage or exploding into the backfield.
“I’d say he has hit all the marks that you can hit at this time of year. The knowledge, the intensity to go for it,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said of his new linebacker. “He has absolutely nailed all the markers up to now and we’ll kind of continue that as we get into training camp, but he’s off to a hell of a start.”
Styles’ physical attributes were evident long before he landed in Washington. The son of former NFL linebacker Lorenzo Styles posted freakish numbers at February’s scouting combine in Indianapolis.
His size and speed still caught some teammates — like Newton — off guard, but his habits and demeanor have been more impressive.
No task has been too big for Styles. Learning a new system, adapting to the speed of NFL practices, communicating as a leader of the defense have all come easily through two months of offseason work.
“He’s very in control. Sometimes you can get too excited, especially when you’re first learning a system. But I just felt like he has a demeanor that is very much in control, similar to Jayden in that way,” Quinn said. “What you’ll find with him is he’s thoughtful, but when it’s time to turn it on, he absolutely will do that.”
Styles credited his NFL father for that unshakeable calmness.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a little bit more like that,” the 21-year-old said. “But you get between the lines, the bullets start flying, you get a little excited. You’ve got to play linebacker that way.”
But Washington’s linebackers can’t be too quiet. In Jones’ new system, they need to communicate with each other and their teammates in the secondary and on the defensive line. It’s not a concern for Styles, who said he played a similar role on an Ohio State defense coordinated by former NFL head coach Matt Patricia that featured two other first-round picks.
Ohio State didn’t have the same manner of trickery that Jones has trotted out, though.
“[Coach Quinn] said we’ve got to be a bunch of Denzel Washingtons: great actors,” Newton said of the disguise-heavy scheme. “If everything looks the same, it opens up the pressures, the stunts that we have.”
And Styles is widely expected to be that group’s on-field director when the Commanders take the field in the regular season.
“Great communicator. He’s adapted to the NFL at lightning speed,” Newton said. “It’s kind of amazing to see.”
The Commanders will practice together on Wednesday and Thursday before a month-long break ahead of training camp. Styles won’t be resting on his laurels; he plans to spend that time away from the field analyzing practice film of the offseason workouts, going through the calls and the communication as if he were on the field.
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