Picking Up Van Ness’ Fifth-Year Option the Prudent (and Obvious) Choice

The Green Bay Packers exercised Lukas Van Ness' fifth-year option on Thursday, with deadline day rapidly approaching. Picking it up guarantees Van Ness $13.8 million in 2027 and keeps him with the Packers for at least two more seasons.

It was the obvious choice.

Let's start with Green Bay's perspective.

The edge-rusher market is crazy, and while guaranteeing a full $13.8 million to Van Ness in 2027 sounds like a lot, consider that Kingsley Enagbare just left in free agency to sign a one-year deal worth $10 million with the New York Jets. All of a sudden, $13.8 million isn't such a huge price tag for Van Ness.

Green Bay would love to find a Robin to Micah Parsons' Batman. However, two options to fill that void left this offseason: Rashan Gary and Enagbare. The Packers sent Gary to Dallas as part of the Parsons deal. Maybe neither would've fully lived up to that role, but either one would've at least given Green Bay more options.

With those two out and Parsons on the shelf to start the 2026 season, Green Bay has an edge-rushing group whose main components are Van Ness, Brenton Cox Jr., Barryn Sorrell, Collin Oliver, and Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Cox has been productive when available, but he hasn’t quite played up to the level of a true No. 2 edge rusher behind Parsons. Sorrell and Oliver were fourth- and fifth-round picks last year, while Dennis-Sutton was a fourth-round selection last week.

In an ideal world, at least one of Sorrell, Oliver, or Dennis-Sutton takes off and becomes a starting-caliber edge rusher. However, that's far from a guarantee. If the Packers had declined Van Ness' option, and he left in free agency next offseason, that edge group would suddenly be one superstar orbited by a lot of uncertainty.

It's fun to be the optimist and believe that one of the three edge rushers drafted in the last two years will turn into a stud. Considering the Packers didn't take any of them on the first two days of the draft, the odds aren’t overwhelming. Having Van Ness as part of the picture for the next two years makes the most sense to keep at least one highly touted player drafted by Green Bay in the mix.

While Van Ness' play has been wildly inconsistent and he’s had some health issues, like the foot injury that cost him a chunk of the 2025 season, the Packers believe he still has plenty of upside.

Van Ness’ base numbers don't pop — he has just 8.5 sacks in three years — but it's evident from the deeper numbers that he’s a young player still improving, with more room still to grow. Exactly what his ceiling is will likely be clear by the end of this season or next, but there’s plenty to be enthusiastic about, assuming he can stay healthy.

Skeptical fans and analysts will note that, even after being the No. 13-overall selection in 2023, Van Ness has been nothing more than a rotational player. And that was also the case with him in college. Although he didn't start at Iowa, the Packers deemed Van Ness worthy of a first-round pick just three years ago. The rotational label has stuck, as Parsons and Gary out-snapped him in the early stages of 2025. By the time he returned near the end of the year, even after Parsons had suffered a torn ACL, Gary and Enagbare out-snapped Van Ness most weeks.

That simply can’t be the case this year; the rubber will meet the road. Gary is gone. Enagbare is gone. Parsons will be watching from the sidelines at least the first couple of weeks. If there was ever a red-carpet rollout for Van Ness, this is it. It’s time to prove his worth. No more rotational work; he’ll be a starter, and the Packers will expect him to have a starter’s production.

The only other option would've been for Van Ness and the team to agree to an extension. Van Ness and his camp would've shown data proving he's getting better and that the edge-rusher market has become volatile. Green Bay would've offered a rebuttal that showed Van Ness hasn't even been a full-time starter yet and that there have been zero signs of consistent play. Because of that, and the injuries further clouding the waters, the best solution was for the Packers to pick up the option for now and kick the extension talks down the road to next offseason.

Van Ness gets the security of a $13.8 million payday and not having to worry about auditioning for 31 other teams by playing out the final year of his rookie deal with no financial assurances beyond that. For the Packers, they're giving Van Ness one last crack these next two years to show he can be a dude up front and that he was worth their significant investment.