[Plugin: Smooth Slider] Non-sliding featured post plugin

There is a theme that does that, and you may be able to find some helpful code or something from it.

SWIFT 5.25 by Satish Gandham

SWIFT, as the name says, is the fastest loading, SEO optimized, Adsense ready, server friendly wordpress theme. It features Magazine layout,two different header styles, tabbed interface, a featured post slider, 5 custom widgets. Bundled with lot of options to build your own unique, professional and browser-safe WordPress Theme, SWIFT is the perfect choice for those who need a powerful and customizable theme. SWIFT has a active user community to help you with support queries.

It appears to be using jquery tabs https://jqueryui.com/demos/tabs/

I’d like to find a plugin that provides for both these tabs and the accordion. https://jqueryui.com/demos/accordion/

WordPress Tabs Slides provides what you need for non-sliding featured posts like the site you described. The documentation is thin. But if you simply put your image or content in here, it will work. It also provides for some accordion features.

{tab=Tab 1}
Contents and image for Tab 1
{tab=Tab 2}
Contents and optional image for Tab 2
{/tabs}