What Scouts Said About Lukas Van Ness

The Packers selected Iowa edge rusher Lukas Van Ness with pick 13 in the 2023 NFL Draft. A big, athletic prospect, Van Ness received plenty of attention in the pre-draft process. Here’s a collection of what a few noteworthy evaluators had to say about the Packers’ newest defensive player. Don’t forget to check out our breakdown of the Van Ness pick on episode 647 of Blue 58.

Strengths

Dane Brugler, The Athletic — Owns a long, stout frame with an accessible power base ... explodes out of his stance to shoot gaps and work half-a-man ... naturally strong and puts his arm length to use as a bull rusher to overpower through the numbers ... flashes ascending handwork with his chop/club/rip moves ... initial twitch helps him threaten the corner on the outside or out-quick interior blockers, creating mismatches when he reduces ... sets a physical edge and torques his body to stay rooted and out-angle blockers ... plays hard and gives chase on plays away from him ... strikes through ball carriers as a tackler and has the grip strength to finish even when flying by... earned the coach’s 2022 Appreciation Award on special teams, blocking two punts versus Iowa State ... worked hard to fill out his frame, adding 35 pounds of muscle since he signed at 240 pounds ... had zero career starts in college but played starter-level snaps with the production of a full-time starter ... experienced at both defensive tackle and edge rusher.

Pro Football Focus — Impressively put-together defensive lineman. Rocked up 270-pound physique. His ability to sink into his bull rush is insane. He plays at a ridiculous angle into contact. Has the power that you rarely see from only a third-year player.

Lance Zerlein, NFL.com — Prototypical frame with outstanding lean muscle mass. Fires out of stance, capturing neutral zone quickly. Play strength to anchor and press blocker as two-gapper. Power in hips to battle through angle blocks. Sees runner and disengages to tackle with timing. Wide alignment allows creation of bull-rush momentum. Long-arm rush move generates good pocket push. Keeps pushing forward with secondary rush effort. Agility helps to corral mobile quarterbacks.

Joe Marino, Draft Network — Functional strength. Flexibility and burst for his body type. Motor and room for development.

Ian Cummings, Pro Football Network — At 6’5″, 272 pounds, with arms 34″ long, Van Ness is legitimately a laboratory-built defensive lineman. He has high-end size, mass, and length but also carries it very well. With that size, he has the core strength, power, and leverage acquisition to rotate inside situationally, just as easily as he lines up at 5-tech or as a stand-up rusher.

NFL Draft Buzz — Very athletic player who is nicknamed “Hercules” by teammates. Looks like he was carved out of stone standing 6-5 and weighing in at 275lbs. He’s flexible enough to bend the edge, and he’s at his best when Van Ness can use his quickness and change-of-direction abilities to counter back inside. Plays with leverage at the point of attack whether inside or outside. Keeps eyes in the backfield when inside; moves linemen to either side with strong hands. High level of functional strength and an elite ability to convert speed to power. His spin move is already NFL-caliber, and he displays a very good motor. Gets very good leverage and has exceptional lower leg strength. He’s very instinctive when it comes to countering and solid with overall hand usage. Has very powerful hands - gets under blocker's pads and easily drives them backward. As a pass rusher, he shows quickness off the line and has the fluid athleticism and flexibility to bend the edge. Combines excellent power with initial quickness, but one of his best attributes are his violent hands, which he uses with impressive precision. Long arms with an elite tackle radius along with an always-on motor

Bleacher Report — Great size and length for an NFL defensive end. Good get-off, quick to react to the snap and accelerates off the line of scrimmage well. As a run defender, he's physical at the point of attack and has pop in his hands to get extension against offensive linemen. Takes on blocks with good pad level and has the strength to stand up tackles to get a leverage advantage. Creates stalemates and is hard to move one-on-one, solid at holding against double teams, too. When bull rushing, he has plenty of strength and keeps his feet moving through contact to put offensive tackles on skates. He can collapse the pocket against good tackles and weaker guards. Has a solid push-pull move, he's strong enough to fold tackles in half and just needs to get more limber to clear his hips and get clean wins. Good pass-rush motor to get coverage sacks.

Weaknesses

Dane Brugler, The Athletic — His youth is evident, as he often mistimes his hands or rush moves ... competes with a touch of insanity, which leaves him out of control at times, and needs to tighten things up ... playing with better balance in pursuit will help him as a finisher and clean up missed tackles ... relies more on his motor than his instincts right now ... can do a better job anticipating set points for quicker wins ... will negate his anchor when his pads get upright ... has some rigidness to his movements when he doesn’t sink but still gets where he is going quickly.

Pro Football Focus — He was never even a full-time starter for Iowa. Played 50-plus snaps in one career game. One-move rusher. Didn't throw much else at linemen other than a bull rush.

Repetitive playstyle. Didn't really react to what offensive linemen were doing in front of him.

Lance Zerlein, NFL.com — Forward lean can be countered by blockers. Inconsistent use of hands to control and shed quickly. Needs more work schooling up hands as a rusher. Hasn’t learned to transition from bull rusher into closer. Very average foot quickness for inside rush moves. Takes too long activating change of direction as twister. Lacked effectiveness as interior rusher.

Joe Marino, Draft Network — Block recognition. Expanding pass rush repertoire. Inexperience.

Ian Cummings, Pro Football Network — As a pass rusher, Van Ness is largely power-dominant at the moment and lacks a vast, refined arsenal outside of that. He could also come with a more polished pass-rushing plan, as slight delays between moves can exhaust opportunities. More often than not, he’ll simply defer to power. His raw power can be overwhelming, but he’ll need to expand his toolbox against NFL offensive tackles.

NFL Draft Buzz — Plays too tall, and doesn't have the elite speed to easily beat top-level tackles on the edge. Doesn't anchor consistently and can not be knocked of balance He’s susceptible to cut blocks, a tactic that was used on him often. Has limited experience - has played just two years of college football. Struggles recognizing blocking schemes. Has been able to dominate a college with power - this won't be possible at the next level where he'll need a greater set of rushing tools. Van Ness doesn’t show much in the way of dynamic change-of-direction ability on counter moves, and also has a limited repertoire of pass-rushing moves.

Bleacher Report — Limited experience and hasn't proven to be an every-down player who can handle a full game workload. Not a good athlete or very limber, which limits his pass rush arsenal to power moves. He rarely even tried to win with finesse at Iowa. As a pass-rusher and run-defender, he doesn't work the offensive lineman's hands to get them off of him and allows blockers to hang onto him. Below-average bend to turn tight corners at the top of the rush. Lack of athleticism and change-of-direction skills shows up against athletic quarterbacks, as he'll lose outside contain, especially against bootlegs. Needs to be more violent when shedding blocks or add a rip move when escaping to disengage against the run. He'll occasionally lose gap control because of this.

Overall

Dane Brugler, The Athletic — Coming off the bench at Iowa, Van Ness was primarily an edge rusher in defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s four-man front, but he also saw significant

snaps inside over the B-gap. The Iowa coaches reward seniority, so John Waggoner and Joe Evans started at defensive end last season, but Van Ness had more defensive snaps than either and led the Hawkeyes in tackles for loss and sacks. Regardless of alignment, Van Ness has high-end tools with his length and play strength, which allow him to wear down blockers as a pass rusher or stack, locate and play off blocks in the run game. A hockey player most of his life, he credits his time on the ice for developing his balance, urgent play style and competitive toughness. Overall, Van Ness needs coached up with his pass-rush construction and overall pacing, but he is an ascending player and competes like a grizzly bear with his fierce power and explosive twitch. He has the upside of an impactful NFL starter with inside/outside versatility, regardless of scheme.

Pro Football Focus — Lukas Van Ness is as strong as they come in terms of pass-rushing ability. Known for his power rush, he was able to generate 46 pressures and nine sacks this past season for the Hawkeyes. He is one of the reasons Iowa had such a dominant defense. Van Ness is also better against the run than most defensive ends in his class, finishing with an 80.9 run-defense grade in 2022. If he can continue to improve his pass-rushing moves, look out for him at the next level.

Lance Zerlein, NFL.com — Nicknamed “Hercules” by teammates, Van Ness is a well-developed defensive end with excellent lean mass and additional growth still to come. He’s a power-centric prospect with force as his modus operandi as both a run defender and pass rusher. Van Ness needs to work on hand attacks for quicker block shedding and to diversify his rush beyond bull-rush challenges. He’s taken snaps inside at Iowa but might need to keep filling out his frame before he’s ready to succeed as a run stuffer and pass rusher as a 4i in a 3-4 front. Van Ness is more of a splash player than consistent force on tape, but he possesses projectable traits that should allow for continued ascension as a pro.

Todd McShay, ESPN  — As a pass-rusher, Van Ness has a special combination of size, length, strength and speed. The biggest thing that stands out on tape is his power, as he is able to use his long arms to get into offensive linemen's pads and drive them back to the quarterback with relative ease. He has good swipe and chop moves but will need to continue to improve his array of pass-rush moves at the next level.

NFL Draft Buzz — Lukas Van Ness is a good pro prospect, with ideal size and elite power for the position. In his final year at Iowa, he played at an elite level as he logged 9 sacks and huge 31 total hurries on the edge. He however is a little raw and while having outstanding power is inexperienced and only has a limited array of pass-rushing moves and so may struggle to adapt to the pro game. Van Ness may be over-drafted due to his power and production, although currently, we regard him as a day-two selection in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Bleacher Report — Lukas Van Ness might be one of the most interesting draft projections in this year's class. As a redshirt sophomore who didn't log a single start in college, it was a bit of a surprise that he didn't opt to go back to school. But he's been getting first-round love because of his physical traits. Van Ness already has an NFL-ready body and can be an absolute bear in the trenches. He's strong and physical at the point of attack, which gives offensive linemen a lot of trouble in pass protection and the ground game. Iowa also used him up and down the defensive line, so he can play multiple spots as well. However, he's inferior athletically to a lot of other top edge-defenders in this year's draft class. That seemed to limit the Hawkeye's pass-rush arsenal to power moves and can cause him to lose contain against athletic quarterbacks. It will be important for him to put up some good numbers at the combine to show he can at least grow in that department.

Where Van Ness ranked on evaluators’ big boards

Dane Brugler, The Athletic - 10

Pro Football Focus - 27

NFL Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board - 15

ESPN (overall) - 16

Mel Kiper, ESPN - 27

Todd McShay, ESPN - 15

Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com - 14

Draft Network - 31

NFL Draft Buzz - 26

Bleacher Report - 21