GREEN BAY — Among the NFL realities, whether it’s fair or not, is that when you are picked as high as Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness were, expectations are as high as your draft status.

If the Green Bay Packers are being honest, their two former first-round draft picks — Gary having been the No. 12 overall pick in 2019, and Van Ness having been the No. 13 overall pick in 2023 — have not consistently played at that level.

And if defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s group is going to elevate its collective game after a strong debut season that saw the Packers finish fifth in total defense (314.5 yards per game) and sixth scoring defense (19.9 points per game), then their two marquee edge rushers must affect opposing quarterbacks far more often than they have.

“The expectations — it’s within in the building, it’s within the room — we all hold ourselves to a very high standard in that room,” Van Ness said before the offseason program came to a close last month. “Every week we come in and we want to impact the game as much as possible.

“And moving forward we’ve got to be better collectively.”

That starts with Gary, who signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension in October 2023 but enters Year 7 having yet to have a double-digit sack season. He’ll count $25.77 million against the salary cap this season after his numbers dipped last year.

Gary went from nine sacks and 60 pressures (according to Pro Football Focus) in 2023 to 7.5 sacks and 47 pressures last year. Although he was selected for his first Pro Bowl, the honor came with an asterisk, since he went as a defensive end in Hafley’s 4-3 scheme and the vast majority of the league’s top edge rushers are classified as 3-4 outside linebackers.

Nevertheless, Gary said last month that he’d spent time at the Pro Bowl with some of the league’s top offensive linemen, who gave him “a couple tells on what they like seeing from me and what they don’t.” He also spoke to other top-flight edge rushers, which allowed them to “bounce ideas off each other and also compete at a high level.”

The Packers need that intel to translate into more impact.

“I think that’s one area we need to coach better and I think we need to see that translate to the field,” Hafley said of the defensive line, which has a new position coach in former New England Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington. “We have to get better — and I’m talking to myself. I need to be better. Our coaches need to coach better. Our players need to play better.”

Van Ness, meanwhile, enters his third NFL season having never started a game for the Packers and having registered seven sacks and 38 quarterback pressures over his first two years, according to PFF.

For comparison’s sake, the New York Jets’ Will McDonald, a Wisconsin native who played at Iowa State, went two picks after Van Ness at No. 15 — after the Packers and Jets flip-flopped first-round picks as part of the trade that sent four-time NFL MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the Big Apple — has been far more productive.

In his two seasons, McDonald has 15 sacks and 73 pressures — including 11 sacks and 61 pressures in a breakout season in 2024.

Van Ness was limited by a broken right thumb that he suffered during the 2024 offseason program and never fully healed, forcing him to line up exclusively on the right side and leaving him to go after opposing offensive linemen with one arm tied behind his back, so to speak.

The thumb is now fully healed, though, Van Ness said, and can no longer be an explanation for his limited production.

“I have very high expectations for myself and what I think I’m capable of, what I can do,” Van Ness said. “I push myself very hard, and I’ve got to be stronger, faster, more sound with my fundamentals, and ultimately impact the game as much as possible.”

About our “Most Important Packers of 2025” Series:  When the Packers kick off their seventh training camp under head coach Matt LaFleur on July 23, they’ll do so with a host of players facing pivotal seasons. LaFleur clearly believes he has ample talent to be a Super Bowl contender — even if he didn’t want to say so as the offseason program came to a close — but turning that belief into reality will require many of those players to produce at higher levels than they have in the past. This series, which began in 2010 on ESPNWisconsin.com, examines each of those players and how the team’s success hinges on their contributions. The list is compiled with input from team observers, former players and NFL sources.

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