Packers pass on receiver to make familiar bet on edge rusher

The Packers passed on Jaxon Smith-Njigba and every other pass catcher in the 2023 NFL Draft in order to take Lukas Van Ness, the talented but raw pass rusher.

After officially turning the page on the Aaron Rodgers era earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers entered the 2023 NFL Draft with an air of mystery. No longer tethered to a particular identity, the franchise could move in any direction its leadership chooses.

To some, that meant the Packers might land a wide receiver in the opening round for the first time in more than two decades. The franchise hadn't selected a wideout that early since taking Javon Walker with the 20th overall pick in 2002, a fact that invariably came up in seemingly every discussion of Rodgers' supporting cast. It didn't matter that Green Bay surrounded the quarterback with the likes of Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Randall Cobb, and Davante Adams over the years; the lack of a first-round receiver became an easy talking point for the uninitiated.

Still, with Rodgers out of the building and new starter Jordan Love yet to reach 100 career pass attempts, the idea of the Packers breaking with convention and drafting a top-end wideout on Day 1 gained traction. But for that to happen, a worthy prospect would have to last until pick No. 13, the team's top selection. According to the popular consensus, only Ohio State standout Jaxon Smith-Njigba merited consideration in the top 15, and the perceived shallowness of the receiver class led many to believe he would come off the board ahead of Green Bay.

But as the draft unfolded, a once-unthinkable scenario began to play out. Two running backs and the consensus top three offensive linemen came off the board over the first 12 picks, pushing Smith-Njigba into range for the Packers. After all these years, would the streak finally come to an end? Would the appeal of pairing promising second-year wideouts Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs with a receiver who somehow outproduced college teammates Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson prove too tempting?

For all of Smith-Njigba's intrigue, he ultimately couldn't entice the Packers to change course. Instead, they went down a more familiar path, investing their top draft pick in a Herculean pass rusher with plenty of untapped potential: Iowa's Lukas Van Ness.

In retrospect, the selection shouldn't come as a surprise. The 6-foot-5, 272-pound Van Ness offers elite movement skills for his size, boasting a Relative Athletic Score of 9.39 out of 10. In particular, he ran a three-cone drill in 7.01 seconds, a valuable indicator of future performance that the Packers utilize in their evaluations. More to the point, the Iowa pass rusher shares more than a passing resemblance to some of his new Green Bay teammates. NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah compared Van Ness to Rashan Gary while ESPN's Matt Miller saw shades of Preston Smith.