Few Packers players are walking into 2026 with more heat on them than Lukas Van Ness.
That’s not hard to understand. Green Bay still has a major edge-rushing question to answer while Micah Parsons works his way back from a torn ACL, and Van Ness is the player most clearly tied to that answer.
The Packers took him 13th overall in 2023 because they believed he could grow into a difference-maker off the edge. Three seasons in, that promise is still waiting to turn into steady production.
The raw tools are obvious. Van Ness has the size, burst and versatility that made him such an appealing first-round pick.
What Green Bay has not gotten yet is the kind of week-to-week impact that changes game plans. Across his career, he has 8.5 sacks.
Last season, he had only 1.5.
That’s why this season matters so much. The Packers need someone to step into the pressure void with Parsons unavailable to start the year, and Van Ness has the clearest path to doing it. The talent has always been there; the challenge has been turning flashes into finishes and showing he can affect both the run and the pass with more consistency.
Van Ness didn’t duck the expectations during minicamp. He admitted his career has not unfolded the way he imagined, but said he has stayed locked into the process.
Now the clock is louder than ever. If he can turn those physical gifts into eight to 10 sacks and become a more disruptive force overall, it would reshape how Green Bay’s defense looks. If he can’t, the questions about whether he’ll ever live up to being a first-round pick are only going to get bigger.
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