Three Packers on Bucky Brooks’ All-Breakout Team

For the Green Bay Packers to go from playoff team to legitimate championship contender, they’ll need some of their young players to rise into prominent roles.

At NFL.com, Bucky Brooks selected his 22-player All-Breakout Team. Brooks picked two members of the Packers’ defense.

One is defensive end Lukas Van Ness. If Brooks is right, the Packers might have solved one of their biggest weaknesses.

Green Bay’s pass rush was painfully inconsistent last year, due in part to Van Ness’ failure to take a Year 2 jump. After a strong second half to his rookie season, Van Ness had only three sacks in 17 games in 2024. A broken thumb sustained during the offseason limited him for most of the season.

“Playing defensive line, it’s all with your hands,” he said during OTAs. “When you’re kind of limited to using the thumb, [that’s where] a lot of our moves are originated from. I don’t know if any of you guys have ever broken a thumb or hand or anything, you kind of get a little bit of a mental block, and it’s taken me a little bit of time to gain some confidence again in utilizing my hand to its fullest extent.”

Van Ness was the fifth defensive player selected in 2023. In two seasons, he is 17th with seven sacks, 14th with 16 quarterback hits and 10th with 14 tackles for losses.

Just like he didn’t start any games at Iowa, Van Ness hasn’t started a game in two seasons with Green Bay. Last year’s trade-deadline deal that sent Preston Smith to Pittsburgh meant more snaps for Brenton Cox but not for Van Ness. He played at least half the defensive snaps in only two games last season.

As part of longer analysis, Brooks wrote, “Van Ness possesses the size, tools and experience to turn his flashes into disruptive production this fall.”

It’s hard to say Cooper would be a breakout player after earning All-Rookie honors and even an All-Pro vote. The second-round pick’s 87 tackles included 3.5 sacks and 13 tackles for losses. It was the most TFLs by any rookie as well as any off-the-ball linebacker.

“Cooper is a rare find as a downhill 'backer with the speed, quickness and agility to match tight ends and running backs in space, while possessing the power, pop and wiggle to wreak havoc on blitzes,” Brooks wrote.

Now that he’s bulked up to 240 pounds, there could be more power and pop to his game.

“I just wanted to feel powerful,” Cooper said during OTAs. “I felt like the explosiveness was there, but there ain’t no problem being a little bit bigger as long as you can move the same. That’s how I felt about it.”

Cooper started only four games. After playing 491 snaps, Cooper believes the experience will turn into more production.

“Just being in the right spot and trying 100 percent,” Cooper said of playing with greater consistency. “You try to have a perfect game, but I don’t like using that excuse for myself. Pretty hard on myself, but things can be tough for you, think a lot, alignment can be wrong, just little stuff like that. So, just making sure I’m in the right spot at all times.”

On the other side of the ball, Brooks penciled in Jordan Morgan at guard, which is where he spent his rookie season. It’s also his clearest path to a starting job, with Morgan slated to compete with right guard Sean Rhyan and left tackle Rasheed Walker.

If Jordan Love has an excellent third season, Brooks said, “there's a good chance the second-year blocker will have played a major role in his success, presumably as either Love's blindside protector or as a trench warrior at the point of attack.”

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