\u201cIt\u2019s been awesome,\u201d he told Packers On SI after one of his recent visits. \u201cI\u2019ve been traveling. I\u2019ve been living the dream. This is everything you could dream for when you\u2019re in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might have seemed like an impossible dream when he was in high school. van den Berg was born in South Africa and moved to the Atlanta area when he was 10. As a senior in 2019, he was a 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker at Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, Ga. While he was an all-state player, he was a zero-star recruit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn high school, I had one D-III offer,\u201d van den Berg said. \u201cI knew what I was capable of doing. I knew I had the ability to play [at a] Power Four [school]. So, I decided to bet on myself and walk on at a junior college and prove myself to the world. I just knew that it was in my DNA to do it. I knew what I was capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
His parents didn\u2019t embrace the decision, but the bet took van den Berg to Iowa Western Community College, a junior-college powerhouse known for sending prospects to Division I schools. One of the coaches told van den Berg to play defensive end.<\/p>\n
So, he did.<\/p>\n
![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/packer_central\/01kpege48nywrwceyj0j.jpg\" "\\"Jordan")
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Jordan van den Berg bet on himself. And won. | Photo courtesy Georgia Tech Athletics<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Hey, coach, I\u2019ll play whatever. I just want to prove myself,\u2019\u201d van den Berg said.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for van den Berg, he had his grandfather\u2019s genetics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weight room has always been in my DNA from lifting with my dad and just idolizing my grandfather,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I got to college, I just started lifting. I found the strongest guy. His name was Noah Meneses, and he\u2019s my best friend. Me and him just started lifting every day. He was way stronger than me at the time. Whatever he did, I had to do. Even if I was doing it with bad technique, I was making sure I was doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardest part wasn\u2019t necessarily the training. For about six months, he said, \u201cI\u2019d drink a whole gallon of milk every day and I\u2019d eat a normal-size jar of peanut butter every night. The trainers jokingly told him he\u2019d die if he kept it up.<\/p>\n
Through diet and training, van den Berg packed on 40 pounds and earned first-team All-American honors with four tackles for losses in six games.<\/p>\n
That opened the door for van den Berg at Penn State, where he played in 28 games from 2022 through 2024, and, finally, Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n
With the Yellow Jackets, van den Berg earned second-team all-ACC in 2024, when he started seven games. That set the table for a dominant final season. As a sixth-year senior in 2025, he started all 13 games and had three sacks and 11 tackles for losses.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, even though he was a member of Bruce Feldman\u2019s prestigious Freaks List, he wasn\u2019t invited to the Scouting Combine. So, he put on a show at Georgia Tech\u2019s pro day. At 6-foot-3 1\/4 and 310 pounds, he put up 35 reps on the 225-pound bench press. That was impressive, but not nearly as impressive as his 4.94 in the 40-yard dash and his 4.19 in the 20-yard shuttle. That would have been the fastest shuttle time by an interior defensive lineman at the Scouting Combine by a staggering 0.49 seconds.<\/p>\n
Told how incredible his workout was \u2013 his Relative Athletic Score of 9.99 ranks second all-time behind Jordan Davis among defensive tackles \u2013 van den Berg simply replied with typical politeness, \u201cThank you, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan van den Berg Made Fast First Impression<\/p>\n
Mr. Woody wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n
Woody Thompson is a performance specialist at Exos, the facility in Pensacola, Fla., where van den Berg did his predraft training.<\/p>\n
He quickly took note of van den Berg\u2019s athleticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those things where like the first week or so when we\u2019re watching athletes warm up, they do their marches, their skips, and once we did our first explosive skips for height, you just saw him float a little bit,\u201d Thompson said. \u201c\u2018Wow, that\u2019s interesting for a big boy,\u2019 because he\u2019s like 315 and he actually was like floating pretty good in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Georgia](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpefqh0s6hvsxvadwr.jpg\" "\\"Georgia")
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Georgia Tech defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg rushes upfield. | Photo courtesy Georgia Tech Athletics<\/p>\n
As they got into training, the prospects did what Thompson called their \u201centry vert.\u201d For defensive backs who are just getting going and aren\u2019t at their testing peak, an above-average height is between 32 and 34 inches. van den Berg was in the low 32s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Damn, that big boy can jump,\u2019\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
And move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more we started training, it just kept being more and more obvious that he was very uncommon for his size,\u201d Thompson continued. \u201cWe had a lot of great athletes \u2013 obviously, they\u2019re all great athletes because they\u2019re training for the NFL Combine \u2013 but it was impressive just how well he could bend and the numbers he was putting up on his multidirection drills.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some skill guys making excuses. \u2018Can we move spots? The turf is slick. It\u2019s the turf. It\u2019s the turf.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Really?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Jordan van den Berg just did a 4.10 in the 5-10-5 [20-yard shuttle] and he\u2019s 315 pounds. You\u2019re 185. What\u2019s your excuse?\u2019 just to shut them up real quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Georgia](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/packer_central\/01kpef8sp12jj2bdhpgr.jpg\" "\\"Georgia")
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Georgia Tech defensive lineman Jordan van den Berg attacks off the line of scrimmage. | Photo courtesy Georgia Tech Athletics<\/p>\n
Without skipping a beat, Thompson switched from talking about van den Berg the athlete to van den Berg the person.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite aspect of him outside of his athleticism, he always referred to me as \u2018Mr. Woody,\u2019\u201d Thompson continued. \u201cHe never called me \u2018Coach.\u2019 It was, I hate to say adorable, because, you know, he\u2019s a grown man, but he would come up to me and be like, \u2018Hey, Mr. Woody, do you think it\u2019d be OK if I did some extra work?\u2019 Or, \u2018Mr. Woody, how\u2019d that look?\u2019 I just thought it was funny, because they usually call me just \u2018Coach\u2019 or \u2018Woody.\u2019 So, \u2018Mr. Woody\u2019 was always fun. I was like, \u2018That\u2019s adorable, man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not training, van den Berg loves fishing and hunting. As he drove around Pensacola for training, he kept a kayak in the back of his truck. One day, Thompson said, van den Berg caught a stingray. He kept it to use as shark bait.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not catch a shark, unfortunately,\u201d van den Berg said. \u201cI wish. It was an awesome time. I was on the beach, just sitting there on my chair, just enjoying the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan van den Berg Is Quality NFL Prospect<\/p>\n
In training van den Berg, Thompson sees a little of Kobie Turner, a third-round pick by the Rams in 2023 who has 24 sacks and 27 tackles for losses in his first three seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy old mentor would always be like, \u2018Hey, you got to look like Spider-Man,\u2019 just to build that picture in their head,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou would just see them getting low and it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, see how low his chest is and how much mobility he has in his hips and his ankles?\u2019 He can just bend. The way he was just so violent with his turns, it reminded me of Kobie Turner and how violent he could make his turns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, every draft cycle has its share of workout warriors. van den Berg, though, is a good football player. No interior defensive lineman from a Power Four conference had more tackles for losses than van den Berg. Being big, strong and fast helps, but Thompson saw the intangibles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re just successful because you\u2019re a freak athlete, everybody in the NFL is a freak athlete,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to get that level playing field where it\u2019s like, \u2018All right, now what can separate you since your athleticism can\u2019t be the one thing you rely on?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like with Jordan, he\u2019s very dialed in with attention to detail. He listens intently. When you talk to him, he\u2019s making eye contact, he\u2019s shaking his head. He is just very much engaged and wants to be coached. So, I think when you have somebody that has the athleticism but also desires to be coached, that\u2019s when it often leads to long-term success.\u201d<\/p>\n
van den Berg has the mentality necessary to win in the trenches.<\/p>\n
![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/packer_central\/01kpeg1831jbvf2a7ewk.jpg\" "\\"Jordan")
<\/p>\n
Jordan van den Berg was an Academic All-American in 2025. | Photo courtesy Georgia Tech Athletics<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery play is a street fight to him,\u201d Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n van den Berg grew up playing rugby in South Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love the physicality of the sport,\u201d he said when asked about his run defense. \u201cI love running through people, taking on double teams. I\u2019m seeking contact on the field. I just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also been \u201cloving every single moment\u201d of the predraft process. That includes his trip to Green Bay, which wasn\u2019t his first. He\u2019s a \u201cbig Packers fan.\u201d A girl he dated while at Penn State lived about a mile from Lambeau Field, so he\u2019d been to the city a few times.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a Green Bay hoodie that I wear. I wear it quite often,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The expectation is that van den Berg will be a Day 3 pick, perhaps as early as the fourth round, because he has all the tangibles and intangibles.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel like I got all the traits that I could develop into a big-time player,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I got all the physical attributes and the mental attributes. I was the first-team Academic All-American, which I feel like a lot of teams also like to lean into, because I got the mental capability of being able to decipher backfield sets, formations, type of blocks that I\u2019m about to receive, plus the physical attributes to be able to perform the tasks that they want me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n van den Berg\u2019s grandmother died before he was born but his grandfather lives in Florida and is \u201creally excited\u201d about what Jordan has accomplished.<\/p>\n van den Berg said he\u2019ll be spending next weekend with his family. He said getting that phone call of a lifetime will be \u201csurreal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been a firm believer in my faith,\u201d he said, \u201cand I know God took me on this crazy journey for a reason. I just can\u2019t wait for it to all come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
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