Former Iowa Hawkeyes Star Receives Urgent Take About 2025 NFL Season

Former Iowa Hawkeyes star edge defender Lukas Van Ness needs a huge season with the Green Bay Packers. Pro Football Focus recently highlighted one player from all 32 franchises facing a make-or-break season in 2025, and the Packers' former first-round selection was an unfortunate, obvious choice.

In two seasons, Van Ness has totalled just seven sacks, equalling his output as a freshman at Iowa. For context, only Cincinnati’s Myles Murphy and Kansas City’s Felix Anudike-Uzomah have fewer sacks as first-round edge rushers from the 2023 NFL Draft, and both of them have played significantly fewer snaps than Van Ness, who has lined up for Green Bay’s defense 793 times.

Often times poor sack numbers can be overlooked if the quarterback pressures and hits are there, but that hasn’t been the case for the former Hawkeye either. According to PFF, Van Ness recorded 20 pressures, 13 hurries, and three hits on 247 pass rush snaps. While the snap count ranked 78th in the league at the position, the pressures, hurries, and hits ranked in the mid-to-low 80s. Nonetheless, Van Ness does carry an average pass rush grade from PFF from last year at 65.5.

His rushing grade is much worse, however. PFF graded his run defense at 45.2, which ranked 193rd out of 211 edge rushers.

Van Ness isn’t alone, as the Packers have struggled on the defensive front collectively, ranking 28th in PFF’s pass rushing grades without blitzing. No Packer had more than eight sacks last season as veteran Rashan Gary logged just 7.5.

Van Ness is entering his third year in the NFL, so the clock isn’t up for him just yet, but another lackluster year could have the Packers looking for a replacement in the 2026 NFL Draft. Still, the Packers don’t drop their young players in the deep end often. After all, Gary has become a stalwart on that defense, and he opened the first two seasons of his career with seven sacks as well before logging nine in Year 3. Green Bay is hoping to see similar results from Van Ness in 2025.