Tag: Lukas Van Ness

Another member of the Green Bay Packers’ 2023 draft class is projected to break out in a big way during the 2024 season.

Like receiver Jayden Reed on offense, defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness was selected by NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks on the defensive version of his 2024 All-Breakout Team.

Brooks believes Van Ness, the 13th overall pick in the 2023 draft, could emerge as a legitimate difference maker in Year 2, especially in a new defense.

From Brooks: “Jeff Hafley’s arrival as the Packers’ new defensive coordinator could unlock Van Ness’ dynamic talents. A freakish athlete with natural pass-rush skills, the second-year pro could emerge as one of the NFC’s top edges if he takes the next step as a playmaker after finishing his rookie season with a bang. Van Ness tallied five sacks and 15 pressures, per Pro Football Focus, from Week 12 through the playoffs, displaying intriguing potential as a relentless pursuer. With Hafley implementing a ‘see ball, get ball’ approach that creates splash plays, this 2023 first-rounder could flourish as a difference-maker.”

A rotational player as a rookie, Van Ness produced 4.0 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, eight tackles for loss and one pass breakup over 365 snaps and 17 games during the regular season. He added another sack during the postseason.

While the Packers return veterans Preston Smith and Rashan Gary on the edge, Van Ness will almost certainly play more snaps and get more pass-rushing opportunities in Year 2. In Hafley’s new scheme, he could see snaps at defensive end and even inside, given his usage as a versatile inside-outside rusher while in the 4-3 defensive front at Iowa.

Can Van Ness take a big step as a second-year player? Remember, Gary went from 15 pressures as a rookie to 39 in Year 2 while almost doubling his snaps, but he didn’t become a full-time player until Year 3. If everyone is healthy this season, Van Ness might only play 500 or so snaps.

While a big season is certainly possible, it wouldn’t be surprising if Van Ness became a more efficient rusher in a still limited role in 2024 before truly breaking out in a big way as a true starter opposite Gary in 2025.

The recipe for a Year 2 jump for Green Bay Packers defensive end Lukas Van Ness is certainly there, and the opportunity for that to happen is two-fold.

The first part of the equation that will help facilitate a potential leap in 2024 is the experience that Van Ness gained during his first NFL season, along with having a full offseason to focus on his craft rather than prepping for the NFL draft, which was the case last year.

That comfortability in knowing what it takes on a daily basis to be prepared to compete on Sundays, in addition to having adjusted to the play speed of the NFL level, are important behind-the-scenes elements that can play an integral role in a young player’s development.

Even over the course of Van Ness’ rookie season, we saw this taking place as his production significantly improved down the stretch. Through Week 11, Van Ness had seven pressures, according to PFF, but five of those came Week 1 against the Bears, meaning that there eight games where he didn’t record a single pressure.

From Week 12 and on, however, Van Ness had 15 pressures and five sacks in the Packers’ final nine games. During that span, Van Ness would rank 34th out of 113 eligible edge rushers in PFF’s pass-rush productivity metric.

“Biggest jump in my opinion in my years and time of being in the NFL is from your rookie to sophomore year,” said defensive line coach Jason Rebrovich.

“Every guy that you see that luckily I’ve been around, I say I, we, us, organization, coaches, from Year 1 to Year 2 that is when that light, that is when it clicks. Because at this level as you guys have heard me say, it’s knowing about you’re matchup. It’s knowing about protections. It’s knowing about the scheme. You’ve got to know where the fit is.”

If that experience gained is the first element in what hopefully becomes a breakout year for Van Ness, Part II is the new defense being implemented under Jeff Hafley, which should fit Van Ness’ skill set quite well.

The Packers edge rushers – or defensive ends as they’re called now – will primarily line up with their hands in the dirt, which is how Van Ness spent the majority of snaps while in college at Iowa. So there is now added comfortability for him.

This is also a defensive scheme that has a more simplified approach for the defensive front. Under Joe Barry, the Packers utilized a two-gap scheme in the trenches. With each defender responsible for two gaps, it was their job to read what the offensive line was doing and what was taking place in the backfield and then fill the more vulnerable gap that they were responsible for.

In Hafley’s system, however, each member of the defensive line has only one gap to be concerned with in what Rebrovich has called an “attack front.” It’s not my intention to oversimplify what these players are asked to do, but in short, it’s their job to get off the ball as quickly as they can and go and get the football.

“I’m excited about Lukas,” said Matt LaFleur, “and I think a lot of times you see a lot of those guys that are pass-rushers take a huge jump from Year 1 to Year 2. So he’s a guy that’s put in a ton of work. I think his body looks great. I think it’s unfortunate that he broke his thumb, but he’s getting more time out there, and we’re, he’s somebody that we’re certainly excited about.”

Along with Van Ness, LaFleur really likes the depth that the Packers have along the defensive front. This was a unit that ran hot and cold last season, totaling seven games where they pressured the quarterback on more than 45 percent of his dropbacks along with seven games where they generated pressure on fewer than 30 percent of the snaps.

A Year 2 leap from Van Ness, which many successful NFL players make, can go a long way in adding consistency to this pass rush unit, and the opportunity to do so appears to be available.

Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness returned to the practice field for OTAs on Tuesday after a brief absence from the offseason workout program while dealing with a minor broken thumb injury.

Last week, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Van Ness broke “just the tip” of his thumb. He missed at least one practice open to the media.

Van Ness appeared to have his hand in some kind of protective wrap on Tuesday.

Lukas Van Ness is indeed practicing #Packers pic.twitter.com/glyWcwugOm

— Wes Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) June 4, 2024

The fact Van Ness could practice without a large protective cast — which is common for broken finger and thumb injuries — is a good sign in terms of the injury being minor.

The Packers also returned veterans Rashan Gary and Preston Smith to OTAs on Tuesday, so the edge rusher group was near full strength as the offseason workout program nears its end.

Van Ness, the 13th overall pick in the 2023 draft, produced 4.0 sacks, 10 quarterback hits and eight tackles for loss over 17 regular season games and 365 snaps as a rookie. He will be expected to take a second-year leap — both in production and performance — while playing more snaps at defensive end in 2024.

“I’m excited about Lukas,” LaFleur said. “A lot of times you see those pass rushers take a huge jump from Year 1 to Year 2. He’s a guy who has put in a ton of work. His body looks great. It’s unfortunate he broke his thumb, but he’s getting more time out there. He’s somebody we’re certainly excited about.”

The Packers will hold one more OTA on Thursday, June 6 before a mandatory three-day minicamp begins June 11 and runs through June 13.

After a long, quiet stretch for Green Bay Packers edge rusher Lukas Van Ness, the rookie first-round pick has come on strong over the last four games.

Since Week 12, Van Ness has recorded six pressures and two sacks while averaging about 23 snaps per contest during that span. Out of 113 eligible edge rushers over those four games, Van Ness ranks eighth in PFF’s pass-rush productivity metric, which takes into account the number of pressures generated relative to the number of pass-rush opportunities a player has had.

This recent surge from Van Ness comes on the heels of what was a dry spell from a production standpoint and shows the growth he’s experiencing in his first NFL season. Van Ness has 13 total pressures on the season, with six coming over the last four games. If we take away his five-pressure performance in Week 1 against Chicago, Van Ness went nine games, from Weeks 2 through 11, creating just two combined pressures while still being on the field for roughly 20 snaps per game.

“That transition is huge for a man’s success in the transition in this league,” said pass rush coordinator Jason Rebrovich. “Has he done that? Yeah. We’re how many weeks deep into the NFL season for him, and has he progressed? Yea. You can see that happened when he transitioned in the red zone to get himself the opportunity to make a play on No. 15 (Patrick Mahomes).”

Van Ness entered the NFL with terrific size at 6-5 and 269 pounds and elite athletic testing, posting a Relative Athletic Score of 9.39. That in itself at the edge rusher position can give a player a high floor. However, what he lacked was experience at the position, and he needed overall refinement to his game.

Coming out of Iowa, Van Ness is what many would have classified as raw, playing fewer than 900 career snaps, with the majority of them coming as an interior defensive lineman. It wasn’t until his final season that he fully transitioned to more of an edge rusher.

In the early going of this season, you saw a player with an incredible combination of burst and strength. But what was missing was that secondary pass rush move and, at times, a plan of attack as a pass rusher. Against NFL talent, pass rushers simply can’t run around or through every offensive tackle, and need to be able to counter on the fly.

“When you say improvement,” added Rebrovich, “to me, there’s a few stages of that. When you’re doing improvement, there’s a pre-snap process. The thing about transitioning from college, defensive linemen, outside linebackers, when they look to the sideline right now in college football, it’s a picture, and it’s telling you what to do. There is no pre-snap process. They don’t know if it’s a near-gun set, or far-gun. They don’t know who the tackle set is. They don’t even know how to line up half the time.

“So that pre-snap process is a huge part of developing him throughout this process, and he’s doing a hell of a job with it because he’s a smart, gifted kid.”

Along with Van Ness’ improved understanding of the pre-snap process and how to then best execute on what he’s seeing, for the entire Green Bay defensive front, we’ve seen more stunts utilized this season to cause some chaos for the offensive line and to give Van Ness and the other pass rushers more free runs or one-on-one opportunities.

“We call it SAKRAT,” said Rebrovich of the pre-snap process. “Stance, alignment, key, recognize formation, and technique. So we go through that pre-snap process.”

In selecting Van Ness, the Packers knew that there would be a learning curve for him, and in having Rashan Gary and Preston Smith to lean on, they had the luxury of bringing the rookie along slowly. As is often the case with Green Bay’s draft picks, it’s about the long-term upside versus the instant gratification of a more immediate-impact player.

As is the case for any young player, it will be important that Van Ness continues on this upward trajectory and finishes out the season strong–making what we’ve seen from him recently the norm rather than having it be the outlier. But we are starting to see the production-side of things come after patience was initially required.