Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr.<\/strong> and Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/strong> weren’t the one defensive prospects who visited the Bengals on Friday. The team also met with the Styles brothers, Sonny<\/strong> and Lorenzo, <\/strong>in addition to Akheem Mesidor<\/strong><\/a>, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Lorenzo Styles Jr.<\/strong>, a former Notre Dame receiver who transitioned to cornerback at Ohio State, isn’t a touted prospect. The alternative is true with reference to Sonny Styles<\/strong>, who played along with his brother at OSU. Sonny Styles\u2019 stock has soared enough that he could turn into a rare off-ball linebacker to go near the highest of the draft. The Jets are reportedly considering the 6-foot-5, 244-pounder at No. 2 overall. The Cardinals (No. 3) and Giants (No. 5) are also among the many teams that hold Styles in high regard.<\/p>\n The Ohio-born Styles could also be gone by the point the Bengals are on the clock at No. 10, but he’s value a pre-draft search for a team in desperate need of defensive help. While the Bengals spent second- and fourth-round picks on linebackers Demetrius Knight<\/strong> and Barrett Carter<\/strong> a yr ago, neither fared especially well as rookies. An upgrade could are available in the shape of Styles, who followed up a first-team All-America season with a fabulous Mix performance. Amongst linebackers, the 21-year-old finished first within the 40-yard dash (4.46), 10-yard split, vertical jump and broad jump. His 43.5-inch vertical leap was the very best for anyone his height in 23 years.<\/p>\n Mesidor, one other Miami defensive end, teamed with Bain over the past three seasons. While Bain is anticipated to return off the board first, there are teams that like Mesidor higher. The foremost knock on Mesidor, who played two seasons at West Virginia and 4 at Miami, is his age. The 6-3, 280-pounder is already 25 years old.<\/p>\n Mesidor also has a past foot injury that limited him to a few games in 2023, but he bounced back well within the two seasons since then. He’s heading to the professionals after piling up personal bests in tackles for loss (17.5), sacks (12.5) and compelled fumbles (4) during a 15-game, second-team All-America campaign.<\/p>\n After picking tenth, the Bengals are scheduled to make their second selection at forty first overall. Neither selection looks like the perfect slot for Mesidor, whom Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com<\/a> (No. 23) and Dane Brugler of The Athletic<\/a> (No. 28) rank within the 20s. Nevertheless, it isn’t any surprise the Bengals are fascinated by bolstering a set of edge defenders that lost star Trey Hendrickson<\/strong> to the Ravens and Joseph Ossai<\/strong> to the Jets in free agency. The Bengals signed ex-Seahawk Boye Mafe<\/strong> to a three-year, $60MM deal last month, but they might still add to a gaggle that also features Myles Murphy<\/strong> and 2025 first-rounder Shemar Stewart.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. and Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez weren’t the one defensive prospects who visited the Bengals on Friday. The team also met with the Styles brothers, Sonny and Lorenzo, in addition to Akheem Mesidor, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. Lorenzo Styles Jr., a former Notre Dame receiver who transitioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[50511,11450,3055,50512,20418,13446],"class_list":["post-317222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-akheem","tag-bengals","tag-meet","tag-mesidor","tag-sonny","tag-styles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317225,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317222\/revisions\/317225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27991150-214x300.jpg\")
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