Terry McLaurin on Commanders Drafting Fellow Buckeye Sonny Styles

Terry McLaurin was not making any draft decisions for the Washington Commanders, but he was making his presence known around the front office. "I was buzzing around AP and a lot of our front office people," McLaurin told Rich, "and it was like, we got a lot of options of Buckeyes. Just grab one of them."

They grabbed one. With the seventh overall pick, Washington selected linebacker Sonny Styles, and McLaurin made no effort to hide his enthusiasm.

The two have a history. McLaurin said he had gotten to know Styles over the years, meeting him on trips back to Ohio State. What struck him was not the hype, but the quiet. "He doesn't carry himself like a rookie," McLaurin said. "He has a very serious demeanor about him. He's extremely smart, and he was a captain back at Ohio State, so I know what that means. He had the utmost respect of the coaches and the players there."

That last part carries weight coming from McLaurin. Captaincy at Ohio State is not a participation award.

What McLaurin has seen since Styles arrived in Washington lines up with the reputation. "He just handles his business like a grown man, comes in here, does his treatment, studying his film," McLaurin said. His advice to the rookie has been simple: be yourself. "They drafted him for a reason, to be a leader on that side of the football when his time comes and to be a real impact player."

McLaurin also pointed to the coaching setup as a reason for optimism, noting that having DQ involved given his background as a linebackers coach puts Styles on a fast track.

The Buckeye brotherhood extended to another rookie in the conversation. Rich asked McLaurin about Carnell Tate, who was drafted to play elsewhere in the league. McLaurin said he reached out to Tate and came away impressed. "He's a very composed man. He's dealt with a lot of adversity and he's never let it sway him one way or the other." McLaurin noted that Tate lined up as a number one receiver at Ohio State while playing alongside Jeremiah Smith, a projected top-five pick, and embraced his role. "He has everything you're looking for, hands, speed, route running, deceptiveness, he's smart."

The conversation took a sharp turn when Rich, a Michigan man, produced a Dusty May autographed piece of the Michigan National Championship floor. McLaurin accepted it with the grace of a man raised in Indianapolis and the restraint of a man who has very strong feelings about the color blue. "I may put that in the back of my office," he said.

Rich escalated by floating the idea that he could frame a tweet listing Michigan's five Big Ten tournament wins over Ohio State in baseball, softball, men's basketball, hockey, and lacrosse. McLaurin did not flinch. "Remind me how the last team up north Ohio State game went," he said.

McLaurin acknowledged the rivalry's weight, then offered something genuine about his own experience: it was killing him, he said, to the point where he almost had to stop watching games because he never lost to Michigan at Ohio State. He never knew what that felt like. That was the moment Rich said he was looking for out of the interview.

McLaurin closed with something that landed as real as anything else he said: "The Michigan men I've met, you guys are really solid people. So, I do have respect for you guys."