Lukas Van Ness making real progress, pushing for starting role in 2026

1 week ago 2

The Green Bay Packers' pass rush is looking for answers without Micah Parsons, and much of the focus in the wake of his season-ending knee injury has been on the lack of impact from veteran Rashan Gary.

But the good news for the Packers is that although Gary looks to be declining in his late 20s, their former first-round pick Lukas Van Ness is showing real signs of progress.

In a disappointing overall performance from Jeff Hafley’s defense against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night, Van Ness was one of the few bright spots, tallying three pressures, including a QB hit, and five run stops (tackles resulting in a failure for the offense), a career high for a single game.

The pass rusher player earned an 80.6 grade from PFF for his performance, which continued a strong season for the third-year player.

Among 118 qualified edge defenders in 2025, Van Ness ranks 19th in PFF's pass rush productivity metric and 28th in pass rush win rate. Based on those numbers he profiles as a low-end No. 1 pass rusher or a high-quality No. 2.

For comparison’s sake, Rashan Gary ranks 41st and 60th in those same metrics, making him more of a low-end secondary pass rusher this year, while Kingsley Enagbare ranks 80th and 86th, which puts him firmly in the "rotational depth" category.

Van Ness has three more quarterback pressures this year in 151 pass rush snaps than he had in 256 last year. His pass rush win rate is up from 9.5% in 2024 to a very impressive 14.5% this season.

Similarly, he would be on course for a career high in run stops if he had played a similar number of run defense snaps to 2023 and 2024.

In run defense, Van Ness has the fourth highest stop rate among all edge rushers, ranks 32nd out of 123 players in average depth of tackle, and is one of 18 players to not be charged with a missed tackle. Only three players have made more tackles without missing one.

He would likely have set a new career high in run stops on the season if not for the injuries which caused him to miss six games.

The sack numbers aren’t there for Van Ness, with just 1.5 on the season, and that makes his ‘breakout’ campaign less emphatic, but all the underlying numbers point to a player very much ascending.

Van Ness has seven QB hits from 151 pass rush snaps this year compared to just eight in 494 prior to this season, showing he is impacting the passer and has been close to boosting his sack total considerably.

It remains to be seen whether Van Ness gets his fifth-year option picked up, which would pay him around $15 million in 2027, or whether the team takes more of a "wait and see" approach, especially since injuries mean his impressive statistics are from a bit of a small sample size.

It does appear he is starting to work his way up the pecking order though. He played 13 more snaps than Gary on Saturday, and although he was behind Enagbare, there is a chance neither of those players is on the team next year.

Van Ness looks to have the inside track to be the starting edge rusher across from Parsons next season, and based on how he has played in year three, the Packers can feel confident he is ready to take on that role.

This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Lukas Van Ness making real progress, pushing for starting role in 2026

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