Packers Draft ‘Hercules’ Van Ness with First-Round Pick

Iowa's Lukas Van Ness fits the Green Bay Packers' mold at outside linebacker.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have “Bane” as one outside linebacker and now they have “Hercules.”

Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness, who goes by the nickname “Hercules,” was the first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday night.

"I'm at a loss for words," Van Ness said during his introductory Zoom call, which he was fielding with friends and family in Fontana, Wisc. It's his parents' second home. "I'm just so happy to be a Packer."

He had been training in California with the likes of Kenny Clark and Aaron Rodgers and likes to watch Preston Smith.

Rashan Gary – aka “Bane” Gary – is listed at 6-foot-5 and 277 pounds. Fellow starter Smith is listed at 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds. At last year’s Scouting Combine, Kingsley Enagbare measured 6-foot-4 and 271 pounds. Acquired off waivers at midseason, Justin Hollins is listed at 6-foot-5 and 248 pounds. Jonathan Garvin, a seventh-round pick in 2020, is 6-foot-4 and 257 pounds. Former standout Za’Darius Smith is 6-foot-4 and 272 pounds.

Those are not small men. Van Ness fits the rock-’em, sock-’em, tough-guy mold that Green Bay obviously prefers. At the Scouting Combine, he measured 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds. During his on-field workout, he turned in superb numbers in the 40-yard dash (4.58 seconds), 20-yard shuttle (4.32) and three-cone drill (7.02).

With Gary’s torn ACL exposing a lack of depth, the Packers were expected to use a premium draft pick on one of the top edge defenders. Van Ness was expected to be a consideration, so long as he wasn’t grabbed in the first dozen picks.

The Packers had ample options at No. 13, including Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid and Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones.

For Van Ness, the “Hercules” nickname has an obvious connotation.

“That came about in an interview about a year ago with one of my defensive tackles, Noah Shannon,” Van Ness explained of his nickname at the Scouting Combine.

“He kind of mentioned the name in an interview and it stuck and, since then, I like to pride myself in the weight room. It’s something I’d always love to do is improve your body and work hard. And it’s kind of a name that stuck and it’s been fun. We joke around with it. And I’m assuming it’ll stick for a while.”

Asked about it during his Zoom, he said, “It makes me laugh sometimes when people call me that. It’s a cool nickname. It could be worse.”

Nickname aside, Van Ness is one of the more interesting prospects in the NFL Draft.

A native of Barrington, Ill. – a city located about a 45-minute drive from Chicago and three hours from Lambeau Field – he grew up playing hockey and had opportunities to play collegiately.

“I played all the way to my senior year,” he explained. “We actually had a pretty good team – made it to the Final Four at state but couldn’t play due to COVID. I attach hockey to a lot of my skills and my balance that I have today. Hockey requires a lot of agility. It’s a hard sport to play. It’s very physical. It’s very demanding. And a lot of those attributes contribute to the player I am today on the football field.”

Van Ness spent three seasons at Iowa. He redshirted in 2020 before earning Freshman All-American in 2021 and second-team all-Big Ten in 2022. In two seasons, he had 13.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for losses.

While never starting a game.

That’s not a knock of Van Ness. The Hawkeyes are the equivalent of a draft-and-develop program. The upperclassmen started the games, but Van Ness led the edge group in snaps.

“I’m looking forward to getting that that first start at the next level,” Van Ness said. “So, coming in with a chip on my shoulder, I’m just ready to put my nose down to work.”

Van Ness was a productive pass rusher, even with a relatively ho-hum 6.5 sacks in 2022. NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, speaking to reporters during a pre-Combine conference call, called him a “bull in a china shop” with plenty of room for improvement. He ranked eighth in the draft class in pass-rushing productivity, a Pro Football Focus metric of sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap.

Van Ness isn’t just a pass rusher. He’s got the strength and, more importantly, the demeanor to play the run and be a three-down defender.

“Playing on our side of the conference in the Big Ten West, we had a lot of running games, so you had to love the run,” he said. “It was one of the favorite parts of the game for me, getting to line up from the guy across from you, coming out of your hips and blowing them up and setting the edge. It’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the game.”

With size, athleticism and upside, it’s little wonder why Van Ness is seen as a potential top-10 pick.

He’s tough, too. According to his father, Lukas never suffered a significant injury even while spending so many years playing hockey and football.

“I’ve taught Lukas how to manage small injuries on his own. I’ve trained him to assess his movements,” Jason Van Ness, Lukas’ father and a chiropractor, told Hawk Central recently. “They’ve all been adjusted since they were born. By being proactive, Lukas has been able to avoid a lot of the injuries that I see other kids (have). Maybe they don’t manage it and kick the can down the road and it becomes a bigger deal. Little sprains and strains, if unmanaged, can end up leading to a tear.

“Limits of motion can lead to a tear. Lack of hip mobility and flexibility leads into knee injuries and ankle injuries. A hundred percent, Lukas is in touch with his body.”

The Packers were among the teams he met with at the Combine. That was his only conversation with the team through the predraft process.

“It was great,” Van Ness said. “I’ve spent some time [watching them], obviously being right there near Wisconsin. Obviously, I was a Bears fan growing up, but we’d go back and forth about a bunch of guys who are from Wisconsin. The Cheeseheads, right? But it’d be great to play in Lambeau. I think they have a great established program there. Our interview was great.”

The Packers are scheduled to have three picks on Friday: No. 42 and No. 45 in the second round and No. 78 in the third round.

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