Soldier Field is not a strange place to Green Bay Packers defensive end Lukas Van Ness.
The second-year defensive end grew up in Barrington, Ill., which is located about 40 miles away from the Chicago Bears’ stadium.
Van Ness starred at Barrington High School in football and ice hockey, parlaying that into a football scholarship at the University of Iowa.
After two productive seasons with the Hawkeyes, Van Ness was selected 13th overall by the Packers in the 2023 NFL Draft, and his first game was at Soldier Field as the Packers started a new era with Jordan Love starting quarterback.
While Love stole the show with three touchdown passes, Van Ness made an impact of his own when he showed off some of the athleticism that had scouts throughout the Packers’ organization frothing at the mouth thinking of the possibilities of pairing him with Rashan Gary.
As Justin Fields, one of the best running quarterbacks in football, broke the pocket, Van Ness started to chase and corralled him for the first sack of his NFL career.
Van Ness finished the day with four additional hurries in 35 snaps, according to PFF. After a quiet stretch of games, he finished with a flurry, including a sack of Fields in the season finale against Chicago.
The hope was Van Ness’ strong finish would lead to a big jump in his second season.
The other hope was that Green Bay’s pass rush, as a result, would consistently create havoc in opposing backfields.
Throughout training camp and a joint practice against the Baltimore Ravens, it certainly looked like that was going to be the case.
It has not come to be for Van Ness or the pass rush thus far.
Van Ness’ lone sack of the season came against the Tennessee Titans. Perhaps coincidentally, that was the best game for Green Bay’s defensive line. It sacked Will Levis eight times as he was consistently under fire behind Tennessee’s hapless offensive line.
That is what the team envisioned, but it has not come to fruition with any consistency.
“I’d be the first one to say that I think collectively we want to impact games and get to the quarterback and affect the run game as much as possible,” Van Ness said on Wednesday.
“While that may not be fully shown every Sunday, I think that’s something that we’re working towards every week. I think we still are waiting for that big breakout game for us, but I think we have a goal in mind of coming back from this break, and I think our best ball’s ahead of us.”
The Packers hope that Van Ness is right because, aside from that sack against the Titans, Van Ness has been mostly silent.
Van Ness had five pressures in that debut game against Chicago. He has six this season, with never more than one in a game.
Van Ness’ lack of production has been disappointing, so you’d understand why some pundits were scratching their head as to why they would trade Preston Smith with the group behind him struggling.
Part of the method to the madness was getting the younger players more reps. Brian Gutekunst always says the NFL is a young man’s league. That means Van Ness likely will earn a bigger role down the stretch.
He’s not feeling any extra pressure, though.
“I think regardless of who’s here, it’s always been a next-up mentality,” he said. “I think whether it’s myself, (Arron) Mosby, (Brenton) Cox, JJ (Enagbare), we’re all ready to fill in and help where we can. That still stays the same.”
Van Ness can be modest, but the reality is the Packers’ pass rush has been mediocre and needs to get back on track.
Of 85 edge defenders with at least 125 pass-rushing snaps, Van Ness ranks 84th in PFF’s pass-rush productivity and 74th in pass-rush win rate.
That might cut it when you’re a backup and playing against the likes of Levis and Anthony Richardson. However, Green Bay’s next three games after Van Ness’ homecoming are against the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa and the Lions’ Jared Goff.
Not exactly the bottom of the barrel.
If there were ever a week for a confidence boost, it’d be against Chicago.
The Packers have owned the Bears, winning 10 straight dating back to Van Ness’ junior year at Barrington. The Bears gave up nine sacks last week against the Patriots, though their starting tackles were inactive for that game and could be back in the lineup on Sunday.
The Packers are healthy coming off their bye week and should be licking their chops to face a battered offensive line that has three starters on the injury report.
“You love to see it, don’t you?” Van Ness said.
What the Packers would love to see is a repeat performance, combined with some consistency down the road.
Perhaps Van Ness can get a bit of a bump with more opportunity combined with a game that is a return home.
“I love going back to Chicago,” he said. “They played a video this morning. It’s the best rivalry in the game, the oldest rivalry. Being from the Chicago area, I’m going to have a lot of family and friends there. I’m looking forward to it.”
The Packers are looking forward to it, as well, and have admitted they need more.
“I think from that entire group, we need more from those guys as we move forward into the second half of the season, and I think we’ll get that,” Gutekunst said after trading Smith to the Steelers last week. “I think as the last few games have trended, Lukas’ snaps have already gone up to where he’s going to be probably and J.J. (Enagbare) and those guys.”
The key line in the quote from Gutekunst is that they need more from this group.
Their season depends on this group providing more. If not, it will be another long offseason of moral victories.
In a city named Titletown, that’s not enough.
