Ranking the Green Bay Packers Last 10 First-Round Picks, Worst to Best

8. Lukas Van Ness, EDGE, 2023

A common theme for the Packers when they have a veteran player is to draft someone who can eventually take over for them. They did this in 2023 when they used the 13th overall pick on Iowa edge rusher Lukas Van Ness.

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds, Van Ness didn't have a lot of experience in college but he had the traits to be a star. As a rookie, he played in all 17 games but appeared in just 33 percent of the snaps. That wasn't a shock for Green Bay since they planned on bringing him along slowly as he played behind veterans Preston Smith and Rashan Gary.

As the season went along, his progression was evident. Van Ness had three sacks over the final six seasons — finishing the year with 32 tackles and four sacks. He added three tackles, a sack, and a quarterback hit in their playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys as well.

Heading into 2024, there's no reason to think Van Ness won't continue to improve as a player. They could even look to move on from Smith and save a lot of money — or give him another year of working in a rotation. Having said that, the future projections aren't enough to leapfrog him over too many Round 1 picks — which is also a testament to how well they have drafted.