For a while, Lukas Van Ness looked more like a promise than a finished product.

The Packers could see the size, the speed and the flashes that made him the 13th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. But those flashes came and went. Just when it seemed like Van Ness was ready to break through, the moment passed.

That changed Sunday against the New York Jets.

Nobody had to squint or project what Van Ness might become. He was the best player on the field in Green Bay’s 20-17 overtime win, finishing with 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, and a career-high nine pressures. Five of those pressures came in under 2.5 seconds, tied for the third-most quick pressures by a Packers defender in a game since 2020.

Those last two numbers matter more than the sack total.

A pressure can occasionally be a gift. A quarterback holds the ball forever, the coverage does their job, and a pass rusher jumps into the picture just late enough to get in the box score. That wasn’t what happened here. Van Ness was winning early and ruining drives before Geno Smith had time to find an answer.

This looked like the player Green Bay thought they were drafting.

This Was More Than One Good Bull Rush

Van Ness has always looked like somebody built a defensive end in a video game and cranked the strength slider all the way up. He’s 6-foot-5, 272 pounds, ran a 4.58-second 40 at the combine, and picked up the nickname “Hercules” at Iowa.

The question was never whether he had a signature move. It was what happened after an NFL tackle stopped it.

Even his scouting reports pointed to the same issue. Van Ness could collapse a pocket with power, but he needed better hands and more pass-rush moves. Too often, a tackle would fight through that first charge and the play was basically over.

That’s why the Jets tape was so encouraging.

Van Ness still leaned on his power, but he wasn’t just trying to win the same way every time. On his first sack, he drove the right tackle backward and finished when the quarterback tried to climb the pocket. Green Bay also moved him around. He kicked inside over a guard and won right away to force a third-down throwaway. He beat the tackle clean off the edge for a shared sack in overtime. He even dropped into coverage and closed down a screen for one yard.

Then there was the run defense.

Van Ness tossed tight ends aside all game and helped hold Breece Hall to just 29 rushing yards. With 1:20 left and the Jets staring down fourth-and-1 at midfield, he shot through the line and met Braelon Allen for no gain. Green Bay’s offense wasted the possession, but that stop kept the Packers alive.

In overtime, he helped wreck New York’s possession all over again. The Jets opened with back-to-back sacks, including one by Van Ness and Dani Dennis-Sutton. On third-and-30, New York double-teamed him, and he still pushed Smith up into the pocket before the Jets punted.

Plays involving Van Ness directly helped end five different Jets possessions. That’s not empty production. That’s a guy changing the game.

The Matchup Doesn’t Explain This Away Either

It’d be easy to brush this off as a big afternoon against the Jets because, well, they’re the Jets. Their offense hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt.

Their pass protection has, though.

Four of New York’s five starting offensive linemen came back from last season, and through two weeks, the group has PFF’s highest pass-blocking grade in the NFL. Smith averaged 3.05 seconds to throw against Green Bay and was pressured on just 32.7% of his dropbacks. So it’s not like he was getting the ball out immediately to cover for a bad line, and the Packers weren’t all over him every time he dropped back.

Van Ness still came away with nine pressures by himself.

That doesn’t mean he’s a finished product, but it does make this performance tougher to dismiss as just some lucky matchup. He was the difference against a line that otherwise held up pretty well.

And there were some signs; this didn’t come completely out of nowhere. Van Ness had a sack in the opener against Minnesota and now has 2.5 through two games. He’s playing every-down football, and new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon is finding ways to use the versatility that made Van Ness such an interesting prospect in the first place.

Van Ness said during the offseason that Gannon’s defense was allowing him to “play free without thinking.” That sounds like standard June optimism until September gives it some weight. Against the Jets, he looked decisive.

Green Bay Has Been Waiting A Long Time For This

The impatience around Van Ness hasn’t been unfair.

He had four sacks as a rookie, three in 2024 and managed just 1.5 across nine games last season. Through his first three years, he played in 43 games but only started two. A broken thumb bothered him throughout 2024, then a foot injury wiped out most of 2025 just as his underlying pass-rush numbers were starting to trend in the right direction.

There were always explanations. Eventually, though, a first-round pick has to give you production.

Green Bay made that need even clearer this offseason. Rashan Gary was traded to Dallas. Kingsley Enagbare left for New York. Micah Parsons, who led the Packers with 12.5 sacks last season, is still working his way back from ACL surgery. The Packers picked up Van Ness’s fifth-year option and handed him a starting job because they couldn’t afford to wait around anymore.

So far, he’s answered the call.

If this version sticks once Parsons gets back, the entire defense changes. Offenses can slide protection toward Parsons or build a plan for Van Ness, but doing both and still accounting for Devonte Wyatt gets complicated in a hurry. The Packers didn’t draft Van Ness so he could benefit from somebody else getting attention. They drafted him to become one of the reasons that attention has to be split.

One dominant game doesn’t erase three uneven seasons. Better tackles will sit on the power rush and make him prove the counters are real. Staying healthy matters just as much after the last two years.

Still, this is the first time the excitement around Van Ness feels tied to something more than projection.

It took longer than the Packers hoped, and it’s still only been two weeks. But for the first time in his NFL career, Lukas Van Ness finally looks like a game-changer.

The Packers host the Falcons on Thursday Night Football in Week 3 with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. ET. Streaming on Prime Video.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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