Lukas Van Ness Ahead of Schedule on the Rashan Gary Development Plan

When the Packers selected Lukas Van Ness with the 13th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, more than a few people connected the dots between him and Rashan Gary.

Gary was taken 12th overall four years earlier, meaning Green Bay used their highest draft picks since 2011 on the two edge rushers. They were both 21 years old on draft day and are both top tier athletes.

In pre-draft testing, Gary posted an incredible 9.95 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) out of a possible 10, while Van Ness achieved a 9.39. Each player ran a 4.58 40-yard dash, which is an elite time for an edge rusher, especially at their size.

Both Gary and Van Ness are big edge rushers. The former was 6’4 ⅓”, 277 lbs entering the league, while the latter was 6’5”, 272 lbs. This makes their superb combine testing even more impressive. These are true athletic freaks.

So, two players at premium positions, with premium athletic testing, taken with premium draft picks. Like Gary, Van Ness was also considered a raw prospect coming out of college, albeit not to the same extent.

Indeed, Van Ness had more sacks (13.5) in the two seasons at Iowa he saw playing time than Gary did (9.5) in three. Many pointed to the fact Van Ness never started a game as evidence of his greenness, although this is a misnomer, since Iowa decides who starts purely based on experience.

There were certainly elements of Van Ness’s game that needed, and still need, refinement, but he was not as much of a project as Gary was entering the league.

Like Gary, though, he was not relied upon to contribute significant snaps right away, as he sat behind two proven edge rushers. For Gary, it was Preston and Za’Darius Smith, while for Van Ness, it was Smith and Gary, both of whom are still ahead of Van Ness on the depth chart entering 2024.

Given all the similarities between the two, and the very recent history for Packers fans observers to use as a reference point, it was surprising to hear some describe Van Ness’s rookie season as a disappointment.

Van Ness is very much on the Rashan Gary development plan. That path worked out pretty well for Gary, and frankly, Van Ness’s rookie year was better than Gary’s.

For starters, he played more snaps, with 444 to Gary’s 253. That is a huge part of what puts him ahead of schedule, for two reasons.

Firstly, because more snaps means more experience, and generally, faster growth. Secondly, because he earned those snaps, indicating the trust the coaching staff had in him as a rookie.

Part of what earned that trust will have undoubtedly been his run defense and tackling, which was impressively disciplined and reliable for a rookie. He had a 69.3 PFF tackling grade and missed only 6.1% of tackle attempts in 2023.

Van Ness also had 21 ‘stops’ to Gary’s 10. PFF defines ‘stops’ as an offensive gain on first down that is kept to less than 40 percent of the line to gain, less than 50 percent of the line to gain on second down and any third- or fourth-down play kept without a first down or touchdown.

Whether you look at official sack numbers, or PFF’s, which count half sacks as full ones, Van Ness had double the amount Gary did as a rookie (4 official, 6 at PFF for Van Ness, 2 and 3 respectively for Gary).

The former Iowa standout still needs to develop more of a pass rush plan and a general ability to win with something other than his raw athleticism, but he has all the physical tools he needs to improve.

In new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s scheme, both Van Ness and Gary will return to the traditional 4-3 defensive end alignment they played in college.

Besides the actual scheme switch, Hafley’s more aggressive style could bring the best out of both, but perhaps more importantly, accelerate Van Ness’s growth as he enters year two.

While it has been an encouraging start from Van Ness, the key will be improving year on year, as Gary did during his first few seasons in the league.

That is not a given, and progress is not always linear in the NFL, but for now, despite his rookie season not being flashy, Van Ness is on, or maybe even ahead of schedule compared to Gary who preceded him.