The Case for Lukas Van Ness With Packers’ First-Round Pick

In the first of what will be an ongoing series, we’ll introduce you to players who could be drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Up first: Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness goes by the nickname “Hercules.” He’d fit the powerhouse model of a Green Bay Packers outside linebacker.

Rashan Gary is listed at 6-foot-5 and 277 pounds. Preston 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 247 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. At the Scouting Combine this week, he measured 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds. During his on-field workout on Thursday, 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 are expected to use a premium draft pick on one of the top edge defenders. Van Ness could be the man with the 15th overall pick. That would mean a pairing at times of “Bane” Gary and “Hercules” Van Ness.

“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 on Wednesday.

“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.”

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. And if that’s not enough, he’s 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.”

As a redshirt sophomore who was unable to participate in any all-star games, Van Ness has been a man in demand at the Combine. By the time he heads back to Westlake, Calif., to continue his workouts at Proactive Sports Performance – the same gym used by David Bakhtiari and Aaron Rodgers – he’ll have met with about three-fourths of the teams.

The Packers, not surprisingly, were among them.

“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.”

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