To describe Lukas Van Ness’ first three seasons in Green Bay as disappointing would be an understatement. Entering Year 4, the former first-round pick has combined for 8.5 sacks in three seasons, including just 1.5 in 2025.
“It probably hasn’t been my ideal career if you had talked to me in 2023 when I was a freshman coming in here, but everybody has their own career and their own path,” Van Ness said this week, via the Associated Press. “I have trusted the way. I feel very good about where I am.”
The Packers used the No. 13 overall pick on the Iowa product in 2023, hoping to get a relentless offensive presence to work with Rashan Gary. Van Ness has yet to live up to that expectation. His four-sack rookie campaign was set aside as a player, yet his numbers have declined every year since, with 3.0 sacks in 2024 and 1.5 in nine games in 2025. He’s also never generated more than 27 QB pressures in a season, nor higher than an 11.2% pressure percentage, per Next Gen Stat.
“I think pressure is a privilege to have,” Van Ness said. “We’re obviously in the blessed position where people are watching our situation and people are obviously going to have their opinions, but at the end of the day I think you just have to believe in yourself and believe in what you’re hearing in the building from your coaches and from your group and other players in the back room.”
After an injury-riddled season last year, the Packers are counting on Van Ness to finally put things together. Green Bay traded for Gary this offseason and didn’t get a performance until Dani Dennis-Sutton in the fourth round.
Van Ness is sure his breakthrough is coming, but knows showing it on Sundays this fall is the only way to prove himself.
“At the end of the day, I think talk is cheap,” Van Ness said. “You just have to put it out there when it matters.”
With Micah Parsons set to miss the start of the regular season, the Packers’ pass rush desperately needs Van Ness to become the player he was drafted to be.