Lukas Van Ness has not yet justified his first-round draft slot, but the Packers traded Rashan Gary to clear a path for the 2023 draftee. Green Bay will still bet on Van Ness’ potential.
The Packers are exercising Van Ness’ fifth-year option, according to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. This will trigger a $13.75MM guarantee for the 2027 season. Of the players who have seen an option exercised from the 2023 draft class, Van Ness’ resume may be the slimmest. But he worked primarily as a backup for two seasons before an injury-shortened 2025 season.
Considering the Packers have the NFL’s highest-paid edge rusher (in Micah Parsons), this is a rather hefty commitment for a player with 8.5 sacks in three seasons. The Bengals just declined Myles Murphy‘s fifth-year option; he has 8.5 sacks since being chosen in the 2023 first round. The Pack traded Gary’s $24MM-per-year contract to the Cowboys last month, however, and will place a midcareer bet on a younger rush option’s future.
Famously becoming the No. 13 overall pick after not being used as a starter at Iowa, Van Ness has not made much progress en route to a starting lineup in Wisconsin, either. He has just two career starts on his resume. Even as both came in 2025, Van Ness totaled 1.5 sacks in nine games last season. A foot injury cost him eight games last year. The Packers did not place the auxiliary rusher on IR, however, and had him back in action by December — after Parsons’ ACL tear. Van Ness, 24, did register a sack of Caleb Williams in the Packers’ wild-card loss in Chicago.
The Packers chose Van Ness after their Aaron Rodgers trade with the Jets. The first part of that deal moved Green Bay’s first-round pick from No. 15 to No. 13. Van Ness combined for seven sacks and 14 tackles for loss in 34 games from 2023-24, playing behind Gary and Preston Smith (for the most part). Even with Smith traded to the Steelers midway through the 2024 season, the Packers did not insert Van Ness into their lineup. He did see a snap-share uptick, going from 33% in 2023 to 39% in 2024. While the 6-foot-5 pass rusher missed half of last season, he was still on the field for 45% of the Pack’s defensive plays in the games for which he suited up.
Last year’s injury and part-time usage in 2023 and ’24 kept Van Ness on the bottom tier of the option ladder. Although OverTheCap has Van Ness tied to the linebacker number, the Packers have used a 4-3 defense as their base set in each of the past two seasons. The bottom rung of the D-end option ladder comes in at $14.48MM. It will be interesting to see where Van Ness is classified, but he has secured a 2027 guarantee based mostly on potential.
Not really a good option here. 13.5m for one year is a good quality backup or borderline starter. Which, despite the hate from Packers fans, is what LVN has shown so far, and he still has some upside.
What a horrible pick, and an even more horrible option pick up.
The fact he was drafted to begin with was awful when they needed a WR and passed on JSN, Johnston, Flowers, and Addison.
He is one of only 3 players in that first round to never be the primary starter for the team that drafted him that year making him one of the worst picks taken.
Since then he has started 2 games and amassed less than 10 sacks across 3 seasons of work.
This guy is an absolute bust and picking up his 5th year is a crime.
This isn’t as bad as you’re making it out to be given the price of the option, but also the Packers were never going to take one of those receivers in the first round. Christian Gonzalez is the guy I’m still surprised teams passed on given the prospect he was seen to be at the time.