With 6:31 left against the Rams on Sunday, Washington needed a play to flip the game.

Los Angeles was up seven and moving the ball, having already picked up a first down on the drive. Then, on second-and-six, Blake Corum tried to get around the right edge. Sonny Styles wasn’t having it. He dropped Corum for a three-yard loss, turning a manageable third down into third-and-nine. Matthew Stafford threw incomplete on the next play, and Washington got the ball back with a chance to tie.

The offense didn’t do much with that chance. By now, that part feels familiar.

Styles finished with 13 tackles, matching his season high. But that one stop says more than the stat line. Washington needs players who can change what an offense is allowed to do on the next play. Eight games into his NFL career, Styles is giving this team plenty of reason to believe they’ve found one.

The Speed Has a Purpose

Everybody knew Styles could run. A 6-foot-5, 244-pound linebacker running a 4.46-second 40 at the combine tends to get noticed. Washington took him seventh overall knowing exactly what kind of physical tools they were getting.

The more interesting part is how often those tools are showing up on Sundays.

Against Seattle in Week 3, Styles stayed with running back Jadarian Price downfield and got an arm in to break up the pass. That’s a tough assignment for a linebacker. He had to recognize that Price was turning into a vertical threat, get turned without losing him, and still come in under control enough to play the ball.

Styles did all of that. Price didn’t get an easy catch just because the offense had a linebacker to run past.

His pass breakup against San Francisco showed another piece of the same skill set. Speed only helps if you give yourself enough time to get there. His ability to read plays and trust his instincts have had him making plays he has no business making.

There’s real substance to the run production, too. Fantasy Points Data charts 16 of Styles’ 37 tackles on running plays that gained two yards or less. Those aren’t all cleanup tackles after somebody else has already given up eight yards. He’s helping keep offenses behind schedule, which is a pretty useful habit for a linebacker.

They’re Giving Him an Actual Job

The easiest way to bring along an athletic rookie is to give him a clear assignment and let him go make plays.

Styles has already been asked to do a whole lot more than that.

In the opener against Philadelphia, he blitzed, covered kicks, and took over defensive play-calling duties when Frankie Luvu left with an injury. That's a lot going on in your first NFL game.

By Sunday against Los Angeles, Styles was playing 73 of Washington’s 75 defensive snaps. He’s out there for the regular downs, the passing situations, and the late possessions when one mistake can end the afternoon.

That’s a lot to put on a 21-year-old who only moved from safety to linebacker in 2024. He had two college seasons to learn the position before Washington started asking him to handle it against NFL offenses.

His safety background helps explain why the coverage possibilities are so appealing. Back in August, Quinn praised the depth Styles gets in his zones. Styles, meanwhile, talked about moving beyond just knowing the call and instead actually understanding why it was made:

Why are we calling this? What are we trying to defend?

That’s the part of his development worth watching. A linebacker can know where he’s supposed to line up and still get pulled around once the offense starts moving. Understanding what the defense is trying to protect gives Styles a better chance to sort through the distractions without losing track of his job.

And when he gets that part right, he’s got a hell of a lot of ground he can cover.

Sunday Still Had Some Rookie in It

None of this means Styles played a flawless game against the Rams.

Puka Nacua caught 14 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown. Washington knew where the ball was going and still couldn’t consistently stop it. Styles was part of that defense, and his coverage wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be. That pass interference penalty on Tyler Higbee helped extend the Rams’ opening possession.

Thirteen tackles are a big number, but they don’t erase those mistakes.

Fantasy Points has Styles down for 11 missed tackles this season, too. He’s still got work to do when it comes to finishing plays and recognizing them quickly enough.

I still like the bigger picture, though. He’s recorded at least eight tackles in five straight games, with 55 over that stretch after having just 12 in his first three games. The production is becoming more consistent, even if the performances haven’t been perfectly clean.

And his first big afternoon, against Seattle, came with only five tackles. He also had an interception, a forced fumble, and two passes defended, which earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors. He’s already shown he can affect a game in more than one way.

Something Washington Can Keep Building On

Before a matchup with Washington in October, 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak summed up the problem Styles presents pretty simply:

He can rush, he can blitz, he can cover.

Kubiak also compared parts of Styles’ athleticism and range to Fred Warner’s. That’s a pretty big compliment from someone game-planning against him. It’s also a comparison Styles still has plenty of work to earn every week.

For now, Washington can take what’s already there: a rookie handling a big workload and making plays all over the field.

At 2-5-1, the Commanders have bigger problems than one linebacker can fix. They need to turn more of those defensive stops into points, and Styles needs to cut down on the mistakes that come between his best plays.

But when Washington needed the ball back Sunday, he helped get it back.

Now they’ve got to do something with it.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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