Lorenzo
Styles Jr..
Lorenzo
Styles Jr..
Ohio State· 6'1"· 194 lb· 4.27s 40
R5 · #172 · New Orleans Saints"Converted receiver-turned-safety with a 4.27 combine forty and NFL bloodlines, but tight hips and thin ball production cap him as a Day 3 special-teams flier with long-term coverage upside."Pre-draft read
Plays as a single-high free safety and boundary corner in Cover 3, with occasional slot reps. He is better in pattern-match zones where his eyes remain on the quarterback, passing and carrying smoothly underneath crossers. He wins with straight-line closing speed, though reads unfold late. His backpedal is upright and hips open wide, which can expose him to vertical routes off play-action.
He is a willing tackler in space but often breaks down late and grabs cloth on the perimeter. His signature separation comes from recovery speed and gunner traits on kick and punt coverage, tracking the ball naturally from his receiver background and finishing downhill in the alley.
Cover-3 match, with occasional subpackage Cover-2 where the deep safeties are interchangeable and asked to carry vertical stems.
Year 1 impact as a special teams gunner and developmental deep safety who can provide emergency outside or slot corner reps; high-end ceiling as an interchangeable Cover-3 match zone safety.
A man-heavy scheme that asks him to play isolated at boundary corner or lock up slot receivers in man-to-man before he can turn and run.
Elite recovery speed and ball-tracking from a receiver background make him an ideal project in a zone-heavy scheme, but tight hips limit his Year 1 man-coverage upside.
Lorenzo Styles Jr. — 4.27u 40-Yard Dash
Combine forty that reset the Buckeye program record and posted the fastest safety time since at least 2003.
Sonny and Lorenzo Styles blow up the NFL Combine
Brother-vs-brother testing highlights from Indianapolis, including the simulcam vs Sonny in the forty.
Best of Safeties — 2026 NFL Scouting Combine
Position group reel featuring Styles Jr.'s field workout — forty, vertical and pedal work.
This prospect projects as a developmental defensive back with elite straight-line speed, offering immediate impact as a special teams weapon. Teams acquire a player with significant upside in deep coverage roles, provided his positional instincts and technique can catch up to his athletic gifts, particularly building on his 4.27 40-yard dash.
He arrived at Notre Dame as a four-star receiver, compiling 54 receptions across two seasons before transferring to Ohio State mid-2023 and converting to corner. The 2024 season saw him contribute as a fourth cornerback and gunner (16 tackles, four PBUs), while in 2025 he started 11 games (30 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 3 PBU) and led the Big Ten with a kick-return touchdown.
Evaluators noted challenges with tight hips, thin ball production, and a late trigger. Despite his elite athletic profile, most boards had him as a Day 3 special teams flier with developmental coverage upside, ultimately leading to him being drafted in Round 5, pick 172.
- 01
Elite recovery speed
4.27 combine forty (fastest safety since at least 2003) and 1.49 10-split give him elite closing burst from the deep third.
- 02
NFL bloodlines
father won Super Bowl XXXIV at LB and brother is a first-team All-Big Ten LB; picks up scheme adjustments quickly.
- 03
Kick-and-punt coverage weapon
Big Ten-leading kick-return touchdown in 2025 and productive gunner reps in 2024 project directly to teams role.
- 04
Ball-tracking eyes
three seasons as an FBS receiver taught him to high-point and locate throws over the shoulder; catch radius on interceptions is legit.
- 05
Short-zone pass-and-receive
smooth transition passing crossers to help and re-carrying vertical stems in match coverage, playing with clean leverage.
- 01
Tight hips on vertical breaks
opens wide instead of flipping cleanly, so double moves and 9-routes create instant separation before his speed engages.
- 02
Thin ball production
zero career interceptions and just seven career PBUs across three seasons at CB, a red flag against Ohio State's coaching pipeline.
- 03
Late trigger from depth
reads develop a beat slow, forcing him to make up ground on quick game and slants he should have jumped.
- 04
Tackling breakdown
willing but grabs cloth on the perimeter and takes late angles; needs to consolidate at the point of attack in run support.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.27sp50
- Vertical
- 39inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Notre Dame | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Notre Dame | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Ohio State | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 2025 | Ohio State | 12 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Career | — | 54 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Backup safety who lived on kick/punt teams while spot-starting behind depth-chart injuries.
Big-nickel/dime chess piece who earned a starting role via elite special-teams tape before the coverage clicked.
Converted college corner with straight-line juice who bounced between practice squads and gameday actives.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
**Pre-draft context** Son of a Super Bowl XXXIV linebacker and brother of a first-team All-Big Ten LB, Lorenzo Styles Jr. spent two years catching passes at Notre Dame before transferring to Ohio State and switching to defense mid-2023. He was a rotational corner and gunner on the 2024 national champions, then earned 11 starts as a senior with a Big Ten-leading kick-return touchdown. The 2026 combine turned him into a talking point: 4.27 forty at 6-0½, 194 — the fastest safety time on record since at least 2003 — plus a 39-inch vert. Boards had him graded as a Day 3 special-teams flier with developmental coverage upside.
**NFL fit — NO** New Orleans took him at pick 172 and immediately moved him from corner to safety, where his straight-line speed fits the team's single-high looks and where his history as a receiver can help behind Tyrann Mathieu's replacement group. The initial ask is core four on teams — gunner, kickoff coverage, occasional dime safety — with a runway to grow into the third-safety big-nickel role by year two. Camp reports out of Metairie flagged the same tight-hip transition issues that showed up at the combine, but coaches have been complimentary of his processing in Cover 3 rotations.
**Retrospective** With rookie camp barely in the rearview, the evaluation still reads the way boards wrote it: an elite tester whose position and instincts have to catch up to the speed. If he unlocks even average trigger, the athletic ceiling justifies the flier. If not, New Orleans still got a plus-athlete gunner at pick 172, which is exactly what Round 5 is for.