Is Sonny Styles the only standout linebacker in the 2026 Draft class?
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sonny Styles quickly became one of the darlings of this draft class way back in September after Ohio State's first few games. After him, the linebacker class is a mixed bag, as it so often is. Dane Brugler and Dave Helman dig deep into the position on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Host: Dave Helman
Co-Host: Dane Brugler
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Senior Producer: Katy Duffy
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social
Follow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_
Follow Dane on X: @DPBrugler
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to an all new episode of Building the Beast. |
| 0:02.5 | I am your host, Dave Helman, and today, Dane Bruegler and myself continued our position previews for this draft class with a very fun look at the linebackers, a loaded class. |
| 0:13.8 | Of course, Sunny Stiles, the headliner we've talked so much about, but there's a lot of value to be found just after Stiles in this class, guys like |
| 0:22.6 | Jacob Rodriguez out of Texas Tech, C.J. Allen from Georgia, Anthony Hill out of Texas, who I don't |
| 0:28.8 | think we've talked very much about, and on and on down the line, so many prospects worth |
| 0:34.2 | considering in the second round all the way through to day three. |
| 0:38.4 | We tried to hit on as many of them as possible. |
| 0:41.4 | Plus, a brief update on the story that came out this week |
| 0:45.0 | involving Edge Rusher Rubin Bain Jr. |
| 0:47.8 | Out of Miami and where things stand with that. |
| 0:50.7 | Really loaded show today. |
| 0:52.1 | Let's get into it. |
| 1:02.4 | Music With that, really loaded show today. Let's get into it. Before we get into the linebackers in this 2026 class, some news in this draft cycle, |
| 1:08.5 | some somber news in this draft cycle coming out over the weekend, |
| 1:12.9 | a report from Ali Connolly at the Reed Optional over the weekend that Ruben Bain Jr., the Miami |
| 1:19.7 | star edge rusher, was involved in a fatal car accident in March 2024. |
| 1:25.1 | We're obviously a few days late to this. |
| 1:44.9 | I believe the news came out on Sunday evening. We're recording this on Tuesday for Wednesday. So if you're not caught up on the details of this, Ruben Bain Jr. was the driver in this car accident. It caused incapacitating injuries to one of the passengers in the car, 22-year-old Destiny Betts. She would later pass away as a result of those injuries a few months after the wreck. |
| 1:50.0 | Bain wasn't speeding. |
| 1:51.8 | There were no signs of impairment and no field sobriety test was administered at the time. |
| 1:56.5 | He was initially cited for careless driving. |
| 1:59.5 | But that charge was eventually dismissed. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.