Don't overreact to offseason workouts. Don't overreact to offseason workouts.
OK, we won't overreact, but we do need to talk about Lukas Van Ness. He has faced his fair share of criticism (including from yours truly) and undoubtedly enters a make-or-break season. But with the Green Bay Packers needing a pass-rush boost more than ever, Van Ness has made an impressive start to the summer.
Again, OTAs and minicamp can be deceiving and don't directly correlate to success in the fall, but there's no doubt that Van Ness walks away as one of the Packers' biggest winners from the offseason program.
"If you were to pick an offseason MVP, it would be Lukas Van Ness. Van Ness had a strong set of OTAs before dominating the minicamp," writes Bill Huber of Packers On SI.
And it's a sentiment echoed by just about everyone who has watched Van Ness at practice in recent weeks.
It's only minicamp, but Lukas Van Ness is finally showing breakout signs
Yes, yes, it's only June. The pads aren't even on yet.
But it's still notable and far better than the opposite. Imagine we heard nothing from Van Ness. No splash plays, no signs of improvement, nothing. We've been in that exact spot throughout the previous three summers, and it translated to a frustrating lack of production in the regular season.
To hear that Van Ness isn't just showing signs, but dominating at practice, matters. It also builds on some encouraging flashes he showed when healthy last season.
Pro Football Focus credited Van Ness with 27 pressures in 2025, which was comfortably a career high despite playing significantly fewer snaps than the previous two seasons due to injury.
He repeatedly passed the eye test, too, with his ability to disrupt the pocket, but it strangely didn't translate into sacks, with Van Ness making only 1.5, a career low. Over a 17-game season, he'd have been on pace for three sacks, which falls right around his typical production. That's less concerning, however, due to the more consistent pressure he generated. If Van Ness builds on that this season, the sacks will come.
Green Bay's pass rush became too reliant on Micah Parsons late last season. He likely won't be back to around Week 8, or even later, due to his recovery from a torn ACL. The Packers need other edge defenders to step up in the meantime, and Van Ness is showing early signs that he is ready for that challenge.
The Jonathan Gannon factor is particularly fascinating. He's made a career of maximizing pass-rushers' production.
Pro Bowler Josh Sweat has 30.5 sacks in 49 career games playing in Gannon's system, but just 24.5 sacks in the other 72 games without Gannon. Javon Hargrave, now a Packer, had his two best sack totals (7.5 in 2021 and 11 in 2022) while working with Gannon in Philadelphia.
Gannon will now try to get the best out of Van Ness. It's only June, but the Packers are finally seeing the potential they've spent three years hoping for.
Add us as a preferred source on Google