It'd be an understatement to characterize Lukas Van Ness' first three seasons in Green Bay as a disappointment. Entering Year 4, the former first-round pick has a combined 8.5 sacks in three seasons, including just 1.5 in 2025.
"It's probably not been my ideal career if you would have talked to me in 2023 when I was a fresh rookie coming in here, but everyone's got their own process and their own path," Van Ness said this week, via The Associated Press. "I've trusted the path. I feel really good about where I'm at."
The Packers used the No. 13 overall pick on the Iowa product in 2023, hoping to get a relentless edge presence to team up with Rashan Gary. Van Ness has yet to live up to that hope. His four-sack rookie campaign was brushed aside as a player growing, yet his numbers have dwindled each year after, 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 rate, per Next Gen Stats.
"I think pressure is a privilege to have," Van Ness said. "We're obviously in a blessed position where there's people watching our spot and people are obviously going to have their own opinions, but at the end of the day I think you've just got to believe in yourself and believe in what you're hearing in the building from your coaches and from your circle and other players in the defensive room."
After last year's injury-riddled season, the Packers are counting on Van Ness finally putting things together. Green Bay traded Gary this offseason and didn't draft an edge until Dani Dennis-Sutton in the fourth round.
Van Ness is confident 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 feel like talk is cheap," Van Ness said. "You've just got to put it out there when it matters."
With Micah Parsons slated to miss the start of the regular season, the Packers' pass rush sorely needs Van Ness to become the player he was drafted to be.
