Where the Ohio State LB duo rank among first round linebackers over the last five years

It's a good year to need a linebacker. But just how good of a year is it?

Ohio State boasts not one, but two of the top linebackers in the 2026 NFL Draft class in the form of Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese. After strong 2025 seasons in Columbus, both have positioned themselves to come off the board extremely early in three weeks from today.

Two of the best players in this year’s class, how would they stack up against players at the same position in deeper draft classes of years past? I’ve already done this for the quarterback class, so let’s extend this fun exercise to the linebacker position as well.

Let’s go back all the way to the 2022 NFL Draft to give a five-year sample size of first round linebackers to stack the Ohio State duo against.

No hindsight analysis here, I’ve attached my scouting reports of every linebacker taken in the first round over the last five drafts. So, where do Reese and Styles fall among them in my eyes?

Let’s talk about it.