Lukas Van Ness selected by Green Bay in the NFL Draft
The rapid rise of Lukas Van Ness from former prep hockey and football player to first round NFL draft pick is complete. The Iowa defensive end was selected by the Green Bay Packers with the 13th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Van Ness was a consensus three star prospect according to On3.com’s industry ranking. Per those rankings, the Barrington, IL native was the 981st best overall prospect and the 22nd best player in his home state of Illinois.
As part of Iowa’s 2020 class, Van Ness redshirted in his first year on campus to add weight to his frame. He filled out quickly and went from 240 pounds when he arrived to 272 pounds of chiseled muscle at the NFL Combine in late February.
In his first year playing and second year on campus, Van Ness found a home playing primarily defensive tackle. He played in all 14 games that season and had 33 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, including 7 sacks. After those accomplishments, he was named a freshman All American by the Football Writers Association of America and the Maxwell Football Club.
This past season, Van Ness moved to defensive tackle, but like his first year playing, he made zero starts. It is worth nothing that he did lead the defensive ends in snaps played per Pro Football Focus. Over the course or 13 games, Van Ness had 38 tackles, 11 for loss, and 6.5 of those were quarterback sacks. This past season, Van Ness also blocked a pair of punts in the Hawkeyes win over Iowa State. For his efforts, he was named second team All Big Ten by all major outlets, including the coaches and the media.
Van Ness becomes the 12th first round pick of the Ferentz era. He’s also the second defensive lineman selected in the first round of the Ferentz era. The first was Adrian Clayborn in 2011. He is also the 16th defensive lineman to be selected during the Ferentz era.
