The Commanders linebacker is the son of a Super Bowl winner and the brother of a fellow NFL rookie. Now, he wants to “maximize all my blessings.”
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There were signs. The newspaper clippings and jerseys hung up on the walls at his parents’ house. His Super Bowl XXXIV ring. Lorenzo Styles Sr. knew his children would eventually put together the pieces of his six-year NFL career, but he still didn’t talk about it often.
“I always wanted to make sure that they had their own path,” he said. “Football is what they chose — not anything that I forced them to do.”
When Lorenzo Jr. and Sonny decided they wanted to play football, however, their father began to guide them down what he called the “yellow brick road.” The former Atlanta Falcons and St. Louis Rams linebacker cautioned them to avoid mistakes he’d made and advised them about what to focus on. He knew what it took to get to the highest level, and he was more than willing to help them get there. Still, he required proof that their desire was real.
In high school, the Styles brothers adopted a more intense training regiment, including early morning workouts. Lorenzo Sr. initially came to wake the boys up, but one day he stopped. They needed to show him their initiative.
“It was my duty and obligation to make sure that they understood the work that it took and the commitment,” he said. “It was a test of their resolve and if they really wanted it.”
The Styles brothers always passed that test.
“When we wanted to go work out at 6 a.m., 7 a.m. in the morning, we had to go wake him up,” Lorenzo Jr. said. “He knew that we wanted it, but he held us to that standard.”
Lorenzo Sr. inspired them, but he didn’t pressure them. That fostered an internal drive that ultimately got them both selected in the 2026 NFL draft: Lorenzo Jr. as a safety with the New Orleans Saints and Sonny as a linebacker with the Washington Commanders.
For Sonny, simply making it to the league wasn’t enough to satisfy him. As he prepares to start his career against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 13, his aim is excellence.
“That was one the best things he did was making us choose the game for ourselves,” Sonny told The Washington Post. “A lot of times when you’re a dad and you played the game — and he played at a high level, too — it’s easy to push it onto kids. … I don’t think there was pressure to live up to what he did.
“I wanted to be great for myself.”
Sonny always seemed to be ahead of schedule. He’s two years younger than Lorenzo Jr., but they played on the same travel football team. He had no problem competing with older boys. During his freshman year at Pickerington Central High School, though, he didn’t get the opportunity to prove it: He suffered a broken tibia and missed the entire season.
“It felt like the end of the world at the time,” Sonny said. “It kind of grounded me a little bit to be able to sit back and watch everyone play and just know that the game can be gone at any time. So, I honestly think that might have happened for the greater good. When I came back, I responded to that.”
After rehabbing, Sonny won the starting free safety job going into his sophomore year. He didn’t have much hype going into the first game, which was nationally televised. But Ohio State — his father’s alma mater — made him a scholarship offer immediately after he had a breakout performance with nine tackles, an interception and a blocked punt.
“It was like he let all his frustrations out into that first game he played,” Pickerington Central head coach and defensive coordinator Jeff Lomonico said. “He unloaded and he arrived. … It was over after that. Everybody was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
The attention didn’t change Sonny. He was teammates with Lorenzo Jr., a blue-chip prospect who had already committed to Notre Dame, so he was familiar with the recruiting process. The presence of his father, who was then Pickerington Central’s outside linebacker coach, also helped keep him levelheaded.
“After every single game, we’d watch film together,” Lorenzo Jr. said. “We were getting real corrections, real coaching, real technique at a very young age. It just made us the players we are and allowed us to continue to grow and have that football savviness and that football mind.”
As the success came for the Styles brothers, their process remained the same.
“Zo pushed them hard, but I’m telling you, Zo didn’t have to check on them,” Lomonico said. “They knew exactly what they had to do in order to get to where they want to be, and they did it. They were willing to do everything. … Nothing was given to them. They had to work for everything, but they loved the work.”
Going into his junior year, Sonny decided he was physically and mentally ready for more. After talking it over with his father, he picked up extra classes and decided to reclassify from the 2023 recruiting class to 2022. He committed to Ohio State that November, and enrolled at just 17 years old the following summer.
“I was ready,” Sonny said. “That senior year [of] high school, like, what was that going to really do for me? Was that going to get me better? It just made sense. I felt like it was going to get the clock running started earlier on getting to the NFL.”
Sonny was a 6-foot-4, 222-pound strong safety headed into his freshman year, but the plan was never for him to stay there. He wasn’t done growing, after all, and he’d soon be far too big to play defensive back. So he prepared to switch to linebacker. In addition to his work with the Ohio State coaching staff, he and his father held weekly film sessions.
“The main thing he had to learn how to do was to know where to put his eyes at,” Lorenzo Sr. said. “Coming from safety to linebacker, that five-yard difference, there’s not a lot of errors that you can make as far as footwork and your eye discipline. … We always knew, eventually, he would move down in the box or at the line of scrimmage, but we didn’t quite know how fast and when it would happen.”
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The answer was two years. Going into his junior season, Sonny had grown to 6-5 and ballooned to 235 pounds. It was time. When the switch became official, linebackers coach and former NFL linebacker James Laurinaitis texted Sonny, “Hey, you’re going to be a first-round pick.”
Sonny’s combination of size, strength, athleticism and speed fit the ideal physical profile for a weakside linebacker, and he also possessed the required intelligence, technique and fundamentals to handle the shift in responsibilities. He had 100 tackles, 10.5 tackles for a loss and six sacks while helping Ohio State win the 2025 College Football Playoff title.
Although he was eligible to jump to the NFL, Sonny stayed in college. He was aware of when he was prepared, and when there was still work to do. So he bulked up to over 240 pounds, aimed to become a more consistent tackler and pushed to better get off blocks. His stats didn’t jump off the page as much in his senior year, but the tape showed a different player. He was named a first-team all-American and was widely considered the best linebacker in college football. He entered the 2026 draft as a no-doubt first-round pick.
“That was the expectation for him,” said Lorenzo Jr., who transferred to Ohio State in 2023 and played there alongside Sonny for three seasons. “Being able to be a part of this whole journey and see how he just persevered and he just stuck with his process, I see why he’s at where he’s at.”
Adam Peters couldn’t stop smiling. The Commanders’ general manager had just taken Sonny with the seventh pick in the 2026 draft and couldn’t stop raving.
“He’s just everything you want as a football player,” Peters said.
Off the field, Sonny was mature, humble and driven. On the field, it seemed hard for Peters to identify weaknesses. As a run defender, he was quick to trigger to the ball, disrupted blocks and rarely missed tackles. Against the pass, he could cover sideline-to-sideline and had a deep knowledge of coverage schemes and responsibilities thanks to his history playing safety. As a blitzer, he was capable of blowing up plays in the backfield. He boasted the versatility to play several linebacker positions.
That said, what Commanders Coach Dan Quinn, defensive coordinator Daronte Jones and linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. stressed when they met with Sonny was how much they believed he could grow. That resonated with the 21-year-old.
“I have high expectations for myself. I don’t think the goal for my career was just to get to the NFL and that was it,” Sonny said after getting drafted in April. “I know I have so much more in the tank.”
As with any rookie, the Commanders knew Sonny would have growing pains. They didn’t hesitate to take him because of their conviction that he’d work through them.
“He’s just scratching the surface,” Peters said. “He’s going to get better. We have the people in this building with our coaching staff and the support staff to get him there. And then himself, he’s the type of person who will reach whatever potential he has.”
It didn’t take long for Sonny to make an impression on his teammates. He excelled through organized team activities and training camp. He has fit in well with the starting defense and — along with veteran linebacker Frankie Luvu — has been one of the players who’s worn the green dot, which indicates the primary communicator on defense. The impact the Commanders envisioned has started coming to fruition before he’s even played a regular season game.
“Where do I start?” defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw said when asked about Sonny early in training camp. “Just a freak of nature, bro. Me and him are looking eye to eye, but clearly he running probably 10 miles faster than I’m running. You know what I’m saying? Like, he coming downhill. He coming downhill and he bringing thump with it.”
As expected, it hasn’t been all positive for Sonny. His snaps in the preseason were limited — he played on drive against the Miami Dolphins, suited up for a couple of series against the Detroit Lions and didn’t play against the Baltimore Ravens — but it would’ve been encouraging to see him flash more than he did. He was solid in coverage, but there were times when he was got tied up by blockers and couldn’t get to the ball.
Sonny is hard on himself, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of confidence. He wholeheartedly expects for those issues to get cleaned up.
“I think I’m doing things the right way in terms of my approach on practice, film, taking care of my body, finding a routine,” Sonny said. “When you do things the right way, you give yourself a chance to go play in a high level in the game. … You don’t have to worry about, ‘Man, did I do enough? Did I practice hard enough? Did I watch enough film?’”
That mindset goes back to the family and the faith-based household he was raised in.
“Sometimes you have all this stuff going on and things going your way and you start to feel like you’re in control and you feel like you’re the God of your life, and that’s when you get broken down to your knees,” Sonny said. “I’ve been blessed with great ability, blessed with a great family in a great situation. I was blessed to go to a great high school and great college, and now I’m blessed to be here. I’m just trying to maximize all my blessings.”
Given where they drafted him, the Commanders have set the bar high for Sonny. In order for the pick to be viewed favorably, he has to grow into one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Sonny embraces the weight that comes with that — and those who’ve seen him grow over the years have no doubt he’s built for it.
“He’s a very detail-oriented guy. He wants to be at his best. He wants to do everything the right way,” Lorenzo Sr. said. “I think that’s all going to come together for him. The more experience he gets, the better he’s going to be. And, in my opinion, they couldn’t have picked a better person for the program and organization.”
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