{"id":423840,"date":"2026-01-21T15:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423840\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:16:07","slug":"mel-kiper-jr-predicts-cowboys-to-get-ohio-state-superstar-in-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423840\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Kiper Jr. predicts Cowboys to get Ohio State superstar in NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys<\/a>‘ offense was not the problem. Dak Prescott, Javonte Williams, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Jake Ferguson could put up the points.<\/p>\n

The defense, though? Oof.<\/p>\n

When the Cowboys pick No. 12 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, it makes sense that defense will be the priority.<\/p>\n

That’s what ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.<\/a> has the Cowboys focus on in his new mock draft. With the 12th pick, he lines them up with Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles.<\/p>\n

“If you wanted to score points in 2025, all you needed was a matchup with the Cowboys’ defense,” Kiper writes. “They allowed 30.1 points per game, the most in the league.”<\/p>\n

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Styles would at least be a start toward trying to fix that.<\/p>\n

“Dallas could really use an impact player in the middle of the defense,” Kiper writes. “Styles is a former safety, and it’s no surprise once you see his speed. He can close on ball carriers and pass catchers in a flash. With 174 tackles over the past two seasons, he’s a top-10 prospect for me.”<\/p>\n

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Styles isn’t a replacement for Micah Parsons. The Ohio State LB is a more traditional linebacker with immense coverage skills, rather than a pass rusher.<\/p>\n

But Dallas needs more than just pass rush (where it conceptually still has a solid defensive line, relative to the rest of the defense).<\/p>\n

Styles could grow into a major leader for the entire defensive unit, just as he did at Ohio State. It wouldn’t be the first time Jerry Jones called on a Buckeye to help make his team better.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys‘ offense was not the problem. Dak Prescott, Javonte Williams, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Jake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-423840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}