Lukas Van Ness 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Iowa EDGE

Iowa vs. Nebraska

Lukas Van Ness, just outside the top 1,000 overall recruits in 2020, redshirted his first year at Iowa before taking over as an instant impact player for the Hawkeyes over the following two seasons, racking up 19 sacks and 15 tackles for loss. Last season, he was recognized as second-team All-Big Ten, and his name has been rising throughout the predraft process.

Lukas Van Ness, Iowa

6-foot-5, 265 pounds; Redshirt sophomore

Positives

+ Has great length and moves freakishly well for his size, with a six-pack around 275 pounds

+ This kid plays like a bulldog foaming at the mouth, with that antsy ankle twitch as he’s waiting for the ball to be snapped

+ Regularly lands his hands inside the chest of the tackle on run-downs and locks out, to keep them right there at the spot and not allow movement on drive blocks

+ While tussling with blockers, you see him squeeze down lanes and somehow find his way to the ball

+ Once he’s taken care of his original assignment, he can then rip through or yank them to the side to get in on the action

+ There are snaps on tape, where Van Ness is lined up in the A-gap and holds a combo between the center and the guard coming in on angle right there in place, dropping the backside knee and anchoring like a 300-pounder

+ You see him slip through when combo-blocked by the tackle and tight end on multiple occasions

+ Constantly chases after the ball, even when it gets outside the numbers and gets involved on some tackles 10-plus yards downfield

+ Was regularly lined up inside on passing downs, but also at times in short-yardage, because of his explosiveness off the ball allowing him to challenge guys up the field and then the quick-twitch he has to get around them. Iowa put him in the A-gap late against Michigan while being down by two touchdowns, for example, because of the havoc he could create penetrating into the backfield

+ Van Ness’ natural power frequently challenges tackles in their pass sets when he digs into the frame and makes them walk backwards

+ When he comes up out of four-point stances especially, how low he initiates contact and can roll his hips to create that momentum is pretty nuts

+ You see him run the loop at times while long-arming the tackle and basically circling around them, without being taken off track at all

+ Has some eye-opening reps, where he converts speed to power and puts tackles on skates if not places them on their butts on his way to the quarterback

+ Off that, by riding guys past the QB, he can open up a direct path for himself, as well as give a little stutter-step and knife inside of blockers to great effect

+ The natural force this guy presents makes him a great asset as a set-up man on different twists and games up front

+ Regularly fights off blocks late and has the secondary burst to run down scrambling quarterbacks

+ His ability to take a couple of steps, plant hard off the outside foot and falling off into the hook zones is pretty darn impressive

+ Recorded 46 total pressures across 271 pass-rush snaps as a second-year player, working against a pretty strong slate of tackles in the Big Ten

+ At the combine, he ran a 4.58 in the 40 at 272 pounds ... moved around way too smoothly for his size, and showed some real snap in his hands. ... he was also behind only Eastern Michigan’s Jose Ramirez among edge defenders in the three-cone (7.02) and short-shuttle (4.32) to showcase his lateral agility

Negatives

– Looks like a big kid out there too often, where he ends up on the turf ... needs to play with his eyes more

– Van Ness is a very good run defender because of his ability to own his space, but he’s not actively reading and countering the first steps of blockers

– Has to do a better job of rushing half the man and timing up his hand swipes for some clean wins around the edge

– His pass-rush arsenal is super narrow right now, and he starts so many reps by just going all out for the two-hand bullrush instead of setting up stuff throughout games

– Played 50-plus snaps in just one career game, and we’ll need to see if he can bring it quite the same way with a larger workload

Overview

For anybody familiar with how the Iowa program hands out playing time, understanding that seniors are awarded starts, the fact that Van Ness was never part of the 11 out there for the first snap isn’t an issue, since he did play the most altogether and was clearly the “dude” up front.

The natural leverage he plays with and the power he can unleash on blockers is rare. Now, he’s far from a finished product, lacking any finesse or planning to his rushes, while having room to improve in terms of pro-actively responding to run concepts.

If he learns to attack half the man more regularly, the production will come at the next level. I also believe he has the body to put on 20 pounds or so and become a very effective base D-end in a 3-4 system, with alignment versatility on obvious passing downs.

Grade: Mid-first round

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