Joel Klatt says Lukas Van Ness would 'thrive' with Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens are one of the more blitz-heavy teams in the NFL on a year to year basis and are typically a top pass rushing unit in the entire league. However, they haven’t had a star rusher the last few years. Last fall, they had over 20 different dudes record a sack, but none recored more than 10 and only one player eclipsed six.

That’s why college football analyst Joel Klatt is predicting a splash into this year’s pool of talented edge rushers for the Ravens in the 2023 NFL Draft. He has one former Big Ten playmaker picked out who he thinks could be a perfect extra piece in the Baltimore pass rush. That player: Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness. Take a look at what Klatt had to say of his proposed marriage between Van Ness and the Ravens:

“Now, the Ravens have to replace some guys that left in free agency up front on the defense, including some edge players. So I’m looking at some of the edge players. And on my board now, I’ve got three edge players taken off the board already. My fourth edge player, best one available, is Lucas Van Ness, the edge player from Iowa. I love his game. Now, his game is he’s used to playing in a system for Iowa where the system is is kind of king, if you will. And it’s a different type of system with Baltimore but the Baltimore system is a system that I think that he would really thrive in. So I like Lukas Van Ness, the edge player from Iowa, to go to the Ravens.”

There you have it. Klatt pegs Baltimore as the perfect spot for Van Ness, who comes out of college after just two years of actual play while never starting a game.

Despite coming off the bench, he finished top-10 in the Big Ten in 2022 in tackles for loss (11) and sacks (6) as part of a loaded Hawkeye defense that once again finished as one of the nation’s top units on that side of the football. Meanwhile, the year before, Van Ness put up very similar numbers, with seven sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss.

Over two years of actual play, Van Ness put up numbers and made explosive plays along the DL. He’s young, he has production and he’s a heck of a physical specimen — all the makings of a first-round pick, which he will almost certainly be. Joel Klatt thinks it’ll be the Ravens who snatch him up.