1) The Packers biggest off-season need (in my opinion) was at DT, and they failed to upgrade that. Supposedly they were going at physical DE Dayo Odeyingbo in FA, but the Bears got him to sign there instead and the DTs in the draft kept being grabbed earlier than expected. But DE Dayo is a huge physical DE that can rotate inside at DT.


2) In college, Van Ness CLEARLY has more snaps as a DT than DE and it's not even close... first two years were at DT, and the 3rd (which was the last year) was about 36% at DT. And according to PFF Van Ness got 20 snaps at DT with the Packers last year, which is not much.


3) From the article I read (not sure if it's the ones that you posted or not), LaFleur made this sound like a pass rush down specialist role, like Cullen Jenkins did back in the day, and I believe ZaDarius Smith in the "Nascar" package where the power DE would be at DE for most downs, but then on 3rd and long, he would slide into a pass rush DT role.


4) I believe this tells us more about the DTs and the lack of trusted depth there, more than it tells us (good or bad) about Van Ness.


5) Hafley's schemes so far have been all about penetration, and a power DE should, in theory, be better at penetration than a DT. Of course, worse against the run and double teams as well... but in theory, this is for pass rush situations only.