Welcome back to another year of the SB Nation Community Mock Draft!
NFL mock draft 2026: NY Giants select Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State
The Giants use the fifth overall pick on the uber-athletic LB Sonny Styles out of Ohio State.
As we do every draft season, all 32 NFL sites at SB Nation come together to fill out an entire first-round mock draft leading up to the actual event that takes place from April 23-25. One by one, our site managers will make their picks and provide their reasoning behind the selection. From there, I will provide further analysis on top of giving a final opinion on the pick!
Without further ado, let’s get’s things rolling!
With the fifth overall pick in the 2026 SB Nation Community Mock Draft, Big Blue Views’s Ed Valentine and the New York Giants select Sonny Styles, linebacker, Ohio State!
Valentine’s analysis:
NFL
SB Nation NFL Mock Draft: With the 5th pick the New York Giants select…
Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State
John Harbaugh’s teams have always had top-tier off-ball linebackers to help lead their defenses. Harbaugh has said you can’t defend the run without a quality inside linebacker.
Tremaine Edmunds might help, but I don’t think his presence would stop the Giants from drafting styles.
Rec 4Reply
My analysis: I agree with this pick for the same reason Valentine notes above. It’s hard to imagine the Ravens defenses of the past without their quality inside linebacker play and trying to picture a John Harbaugh-led defense playing without a true green dot player in the middle just doesn’t sit right. Styles seems like such a perfect fit for this team to not only be the guy in the middle for the defense, but an excellent pairing to play alongside 2025 first-round edge rusher Abdul Carter for the foreseeable future.
Styles is a rangy, sideline-to-sideline defender with immense athleticism to be a game-wrecker from the first whistle until the last. He sifts through trash around the line of scrimmage effortlessly to find ball carriers before they have a chance to hit the gas. When he can’t avoid blocks altogether, Styles pops blockers in the mouth and sheds them with haste.
While some may believe the off-ball linebacker position is not worth such a high pick in the draft, they don’t make them like Styles every year and the chance to add a player with his ceiling is just too much to pass up for a coach looking to turn things around fast in Year 1.
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