In their Week 7 win over the Arizona Cardinals, the Green Bay Packers were without starting defensive end Lukas Van Ness, who was sidelined by a foot injury that he sustained in Week 6 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Without Van Ness, the Packers turned to rookie Barryn Sorrell and veteran Kingsley Enagbare, the latter of whom has seen his name come up in trade chatter. Enagbare played a season-high 32 defensive snaps, as he had five combined tackles, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, and a half sack.
While it was nice to see Enagbare step up in last week’s win, the Packers are hoping that Van Ness will be back sooner rather than later to join in on the fun. However, on Wednesday, Matt Schneidman of The Athletic reported that neither Van Ness nor wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks practiced.
When Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was asked about the former first-round pick’s status for Week 8 on Monday, he said he wasn’t “overly optimistic, but we’ll see”, per Jason B. Hirschhorn of The Leap.
Lukas Van Ness Still Hampered by Foot Injury, Not Practicing on Wednesday
Based on LaFleur’s comments, Packers fans were not surprised to see Van Ness not practicing, even though they would love to be surprised.
That said, Green Bay still has two more days of practices before Sunday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, so things can still change. Before Van Ness got injured, the former Iowa defender recorded 11 combined tackles, 10 quarterback pressures (tied for second-most in his career), six QB hits, three tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks.
In fact, before sustaining his injury in the Bengals’ game, the 24-year-old pass rusher was wreaking havoc, compiling two QB hits, two QB pressures, a tackle for loss, and a sack.
Nonetheless, if Van Ness is sidelined for the second straight week, it will be another opportunity for Enagbare and Sorrell to show their stuff. The rookie pass rusher didn’t impress in last week’s game against Arizona, as he played 30 snaps but had an overall defensive grade of 40, per Pro Football Focus.
At the same time, it's too early to write off Sorrell, who just played the most snaps ever to start his NFL career. If anything, the fact that LaFleur is leaning on him is a good sign for his short and long-term development.
With Micah Parsons commanding a lot of attention, which will happen again on Sunday, it will be up to Sorrell and Enagbare to create pressure and make that game-changing play as Van Ness tries to hurry back.