If anyone won the first pre-season game of the season, it sure looks like it was Lukas Van Ness. The Green Bay Packers’ first-round pick, and semi-product of the Aaron Rodgers trade, from 2023 racked up an impressive four pressures and one sack in just fourteen pass-rushing snaps against the Cleveland Browns. For the Packers' defense to become a feared unit, that performance will need to portend a second-year leap.
The Packers' defense is not without pass-rushing threats. Last year, despite Rashan Gary being on a pitch count, the Packers were still seventh in the NFL in pressure rate, per pro-football reference, pressuring the QB on just under a quarter of all dropbacks.