Know your Chiefs draft crush Part 4: DL Lukas Van Ness
Sifting through the tape of a powerful, athletic defensive lineman whose play style screams "Spagnuolo."
Draft season is officially here.
Well, for many people, it’s been here for a while. Dane Brugler (the undisputed king of draft coverage) has issued a bit of a preview of his annual “Beast” draft guide. Danny Kelly with The Ringer (one of my favorite analysts) has got his own interactive guide up and running. And our friends at the
are about to drop their now-annual Chiefs-centric draft guide (a must-have I’d urge anyone to order).
But for guys like me, who don’t follow college football (or the draft) year-round? It’s just getting started. Which means it’s time for one of my favorite yearly traditions.
That’s right, “know your Chiefs draft crush” is back!
As we continue to sift through draft crushes, here’s where we’ve been so far:
Part 1, WR Quentin Johnston and the methodology for wide receiver reviews.
Part 2, DL Adetomiwa Adebawore and the methodology for DL reviews.
Part 3, WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose skillset is intriguing for KC but may have a certain ceiling.
Today, we’ll be looking at the film of Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness, a pass rusher who is likely to go somewhere in the first round but may fall within striking distance of the Chiefs. And he’s a pass rusher who practically screams “Steve Spagnuolo guy.”
(RAS numbers courtesy of Kent Platte, who deserves a follow on Twitter)
As ever, the answers I seek regarding a player can be found only in his film. And so I went back and watched some of the available games of Van Ness, utilizing the same methodology as I will for every other defensive line prospect.
I went over that methodology in detail in Part 2 of our series, and you can find that here. But the short story is that I looked at every snap to examine the following traits: First step/explosion, agility/bend/athleticism, power, pass rush chops, run defense, awareness, versatility, and overall impressions.
All right, let’s talk Lukas Van Ness, and why his tape leads me to believe he’s on the Chiefs’ radar.