Round 1 Pick 13 - Lukas Van Ness

[kampmanfan4life]

Dane Brugler, The Athletic (draft guide): “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.”

Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com: “Van Ness is a powerful defensive lineman with the versatility to stand up on the edge or slide inside and play over the guard. He is excellent at collapsing the pocket with his bull rush, getting his hands inside and driving opponents back with ease. He flashes a chop move and a rip move, but needs to develop a more diverse repertoire. Against the run, he has very strong hands to stack blocks on the front side and his effort/speed combination helps him make plays from the back side. For some reason, he didn’t start at Iowa. That doesn’t make any sense. Overall, Van Ness has ideal traits, and his best football is ahead of him.”

Lance Zierlein, 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.”

Mike Renner, Pro Football Focus (draft guide): “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.

Bleacher Report Scouting Department: “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.”

The Draft Network: “Lukas Van Ness grew up playing hockey and started playing football in the eighth grade. After redshirting in 2020, Van Ness spent 2021 as more of an interior defensive lineman before playing primarily on the edge in 2022. That transition started during spring practices in 2022. There’s so much to like about Van Ness and it starts with his functional strength. His ability to convert speed to power and play through blockers is outstanding. He maximizes his ability to bull rush and collapse the pocket with plus length, timing, and functional power to truly stress the anchor of offensive linemen. For a player of his body composition, I’m surprised by how much burst and flexibility he has to get off the ball, corner, flatten, and close. A B-gap defender in 2021, Van Ness is playing primarily on the edge and still getting chances to reduce inside. He should be able to bring that type of inside/outside versatility to an NFL defensive line, making him a wide-ranging fit, especially for the amount of fronts in today’s NFL that are multiple. Van Ness is a high-ceiling prospect that is still only scratching the surface of what he can become as a defensive playmaker. Despite being a highly attractive prospect, Van Ness never started a game for the Hawkeyes’ defense—although he received a significant amount of playing time in a rotational role. While he has all the power, length, and movement skills to be an outstanding run defender, his block recognition skills have room to improve so he can be more consistent fitting the run and leveraging gaps. Van Ness has a strong foundation as a pass rusher but he needs to continue to build his repertoire of moves off his length and power. He should become even more dynamic as he develops his vision to read the set of blockers and his technique becomes second nature. Van Ness has the makings of an impact starter in the NFL where he has a high ceiling to develop into. His room for growth makes him even more exciting given his relative newness to playing on the edge.”

[Pckfn23]

https://www.mockdraftable.com/player/lukas-van-ness

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[BF004]

004 admonished us for comps to white edge guys, including guys that arguably fit, brings in a tweet saying Justin Smith and then says Nick Bosa.

LOL BF!!

K, that made me laugh.

That particular play reminded me of Nic Bosa though.

[Waldo]

That's all Kampman was, that is not all Van Ness is.

Right now, it is.

Nah, the guy has speed Kampman could only dream of.

Huh? That's the reason GB took a flier on Kamp, his freaky good speed for his size.

Remember Kamp was a DT coming out of college and was super fat. It took a few years to slim down to DE/OLB size (he lost like 20-30 lbs).

His game was based off the bull rush and was about the same size at his peak in the pros. Colleges tend to produce very similar players over the years.

Kamp at his peak 3 years earlier is very much worth #13.

[Pckfn23]

Right now, it is.

Nah, the guy has speed Kampman could only dream of.

Huh? That's the reason GB took a flier on Kamp, his freaky good speed for his size.

Remember Kamp was a DT coming out of college and was super fat. It took a few years to slim down to DE/OLB size (he lost like 20 lbs).

His game was based off the bull rush and was about the same size at his peak in the pros. Colleges tend to produce very similar players over the years.

Kampman ran the 40 .4 seconds slower than Van Ness at 13 pounds heavier. He never got close to what Lukas is at which is faster than Matthews in the 40.

[BF004]

https://www.packers.com/video/prospect- ... -edge-iowa

[APB]

All the scouting reports credit him for playing with great power and strength but his bench reps were pretty bad. How does that jive? Is the dude just not technically good with lifting a heavy bar?

[bud fox]

Nah, the guy has speed Kampman could only dream of.

Huh? That's the reason GB took a flier on Kamp, his freaky good speed for his size.

Remember Kamp was a DT coming out of college and was super fat. It took a few years to slim down to DE/OLB size (he lost like 20 lbs).

His game was based off the bull rush and was about the same size at his peak in the pros. Colleges tend to produce very similar players over the years.

Kampman ran the 40 .4 seconds slower than Van Ness at 13 pounds heavier. He never got close to what Lukas is at which is faster than Matthews in the 40.

Clay had a 1.49 10 yard and 36 inch vert.

I think Kampman is a pretty good comparison - don't care about any speed after 10 yards.

[paco]

All the scouting reports credit him for playing with great power and strength but his bench reps were pretty bad. How does that jive? Is the dude just not technically good with lifting a heavy bar?

A few of the highlights I saw showed more explosion in the legs than arms. That's where that broad jump comes in and 3 cone/shuttle.

A year in an NFL weight room will get that bench power up some.

As per usual, the more I read/hear, the more I like. Gutey mentioned Z several times. If he can be versatile like him with inside & out while standing, that would be awesome.

[Pckfn23]

SVP making fun of the kid hugging LVN when he was getting the call. Ha!

[Labrev]

All the scouting reports credit him for playing with great power and strength but his bench reps were pretty bad. How does that jive? Is the dude just not technically good with lifting a heavy bar?

Bench is more of an endurance- than strength-test. I believe the bench is 225 lbs. These players bench a lot more than that.

LVN also has pretty long arms, so that makes it tougher.

[salmar80]

I want him to develop into a legendary monster so I can call him Nessie...

[TheSkeptic]

Found one

OMG!

[Willink]

All the scouting reports credit him for playing with great power and strength but his bench reps were pretty bad. How does that jive? Is the dude just not technically good with lifting a heavy bar?

You can train pretty easily to improve your bench, especially at that high a weight and he's only 21.

I am 6' 180 lbs and not a professional athlete and can out-rep him.

[texas]

I forgot about his hockey background. He plays like it. Yeah this D could use some of that attitude.

Texas needs more

I think getting rid of Rodgers will let the thug out a little bit and hopefully this guy can contribute majorly to that. But when you have a guy who is the unquestioned leader of the team, from whom everyone else takes their cues, and that guy is a sensitive emotional guy, it's not going to allow your tough guys to flourish.

[texas]

All the scouting reports credit him for playing with great power and strength but his bench reps were pretty bad. How does that jive? Is the dude just not technically good with lifting a heavy bar?

[mention]wallyuwl[/mention] can chime in here but I would think that the chest muscles involved in a bench press have little to do with piledriving some poor sucker into the ground en route to the QB. I would think that it would be moreso based on leg muscles

[texas]

Probably saw this, it was an old tweet. Not as impressive against Johnson, but that Skoronski one, ssssshhhiiiyet.

I see Nic Bosa on that Johnson Jr clip, that speed to power and lean is real.

Glad that for once on draft night, on clips involving 2 top prospects, ours is the one doing the blowing up rather than getting blown up (I still remember this about Bulaga).

Also I think his NFL comparisons are: Watt, Kampman, Bosa, Nassib, Sam Hubbard, Zach Allen, and Trey Hendrickson

[TheSkeptic]

Report by Chuck Pagano Now retired, but 6 years as the HC of the Colts, a year as DC for the Ravens and 2 years as DC for Da Bears. We all know that Da Bears suck but that is because of their O, not their D and Pagano was one hell of a DC. Believe what he says!

[YoHoChecko]

Report by Chuck Pagano Now retired, but 6 years as the HC of the Colts, a year as DC for the Ravens and 2 years as DC for Da Bears. We all know that Da Bears suck but that is because of their O, not their D and Pagano was one hell of a DC. Believe what he says!

The skeptic is optimistic!!

[Cdragon]

Internet is clowning the packers by saying our selection never started a game at Iowa. Strange if true.

Iowa starts seniors first. He played rotational starter snaps. I think more than the starter, if I recall correctly. Just a weird college thing at their program.


But he is RAW raw. Like he doesn't have pass rush moves, he just overpowers people, mostly, but has the frame and mold and potential to develop into a lot more. I prefer more development with my elite athletes in the top 15, but he's an elite ceiling athlete with a good motor at a premium position, so he'll likely turn out at least solid.

I don't get the D&D with high first round picks, we do it so often on defense and it takes a season or two to have a good starter and if they excel it's time to resign them, I'am not in this to find super ceiling players, or DPOY guys, I just want starter ready players, imo D&D has a place late first and beyond.

I hope Ness is more ready.

I'd say we are not expecting to be world beaters this year. A year or two down the line when Love is settled in and the WRs mature we'll have this guy ready to dominate. Hopefully.