Edge Lukas Van Ness
Lukas Van Ness is an interesting prospect. Many assume he’ll go somewhere in the top 15 choices, as he had an impressive 2022 campaign at Iowa, and then followed that up with a very solid performance at the Combine.
Van Ness is 6’5 and 272 pounds and ran a blazing 4.58 forty-yard dash at that size. He is extremely explosive off the ball, has powerful arms and legs, and is relentless in his pursuit of the quarterback.
Despite the impressive tangibles, Van Ness wasn’t even a starter at Iowa, and he’s only got two years of production, though they were both impressive. A couple of other concerns with Van Ness are that he isn’t a great interior rusher as he’s often lined up out wide, and he needs to use his hands more effectively.
Van Ness could fall down the board for a couple of reasons. There are a lot of other very good pass rushers in this class. Will Anderson Jr. is the top one, and after him are players like Tyree Wilson, Myles Murphy, Nolan Smith, and Will McDonald IV. It’s possible a team who needs an edge rusher could prefer one of the other prospects sending Van Ness into a slide. It’s also possible that the media likes Van Ness more than teams do, and maybe teams don’t rank him as highly as the analysts do.
Edge isn’t the Minnesota Vikings’ biggest need, but teams that run the 3-4 can never have enough pass rushers. If he made it to 23, his slide could end with the Vikings.