Getty

Lukas Van Ness is going to enter the 2026 season on shaky ground, per Wynston Wilcox of FanSided. Wilcox sees this season as make-or-break for the Green Bay Packers edge rusher, who might not have long-term standing on the roster.

To be fair to Van Ness, the Packers did exercise his fifth-year option. Barring a trade, it ensures Van Ness will be on the roster through the end of 2027. However, the option does open the door to a trade, and the team has not talked extension with Van Ness yet, so there is still a strong chance that Van Ness is only with the team through the 2027 season, and then they let him leave in free agency.

Lukas Van Ness Hasn’t Lived Up to the Green Bay Packers Expectations

Van Ness has seen a dip in production since entering the NFL. He started his career with four sacks, but recorded just three in his second season. Last year, Van Ness had just 1.5 sacks and played a career low 310 snaps due to a foot injury.

However, the deeper numbers show that Van Ness was more disruptive than ever; it just helped others produce sacks more than himself. He had 22 pressures on 238 pass rush attempts in his rookie season, per PFF. In 2024, he had 20 pressures on 256 attempts, showing the same dip as the season prior. However, last year he had 27 pressures on 178 rushes. Van Ness was injured and did not play as much last year, so his impact did not get the chance to carry over to the box score. Still, on a per-snap basis, this was the most impactful Van Ness was.

Packers Need More From Lukas Van Ness in 2026

Some of the pressure increase that Van Ness had was due to a change in role. With Micah Parsons added to Rashad Gary, the Packers could use Van Ness as a third rusher, and slide him insdie more often. He had a career high of 82 snaps inside the tackles shoulder, or over the guard in 2025. In 2024, he had just 53 snaps from this alignment, and he had just 16 snaps from here as a rookie.

The issue is that Rashan Gary is now with the Dallas Cowboys, and the team did not do much to replace him. They drafted Dani Dennis-Sutton in round 4 and have another former fourth-round pick, Barryn Sorrell, as the most obvious names to fill depth snaps.

Still, those are not players who can slide into the role that Gary played and give Van Ness easier matchups. Van Ness is going to have to replace a lot of the production that Gary left, which means not only more snaps, but tougher snaps in areas where he has not excelled as much as he has in the past.

If Van Ness can take on a bigger role and produce more, he is a lock to get an extension. If he has similar metrics to years prior, the Packers will be listening to trade calls this summer. That is what makes this such an important season.