GREEN BAY — Brian Gutekunst has shown a propensity to go defense with his first-round picks and that continued Thursday night in Kansas City in the opening round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

With the 13th overall pick, acquired as part of the trade that sent Aaron Rodgers to New York, the Green Bay Packers general manager picked Iowa defensive end Lukas Van Ness.

“Really excited about it, obviously,” Gutekunst said of the pick. “Big man, powerful, fast, and explosive. Really big upside and we’re really excited to get him.”

Arriving in Iowa in 2020 at 220 pounds, Van Ness put on 60 pounds as a freshman and eventually settled in at 6-foot-5, 275 pounds. Playing a mix of defensive tackle and defensive end the last two seasons, the Illinois native finished with 71 tackles, 13.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss. It earned him second-team All-Big Ten honors this past season as part of the No. 2 defense in the country. Van Ness accomplished everything he did in Iowa City despite not starting a game during his career.

“I was very happy with the way my career at Iowa went. The Iowa way. I had two great fifth-year seniors in front of me. They did the time, gave years to the program,” Van Ness said. “(Coach Kirk Ferentz) has a way of doing things. It’s a developmental program where they bring guys in. I understood my role and my position. I just did whatever was asked of me.”

However, he played more snaps than any other defensive lineman on the team — close to 1,000 the last two years — and then rocketed up draft boards due to his production and strong effort at the NFL combine. He had the second-best 3-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle time among edge players, while also running a 4.58-second 40-yard dash. More of a hockey player growing up, Van Ness only started playing football in high school and was at Iowa for just three years. That relative inexperience, combined with his size and speed, has the Packers thinking his ceiling is quite high.

“I just think there’s a lot of growth there, the physical traits are all there for him to grow, so there’s no real limitation on him,” Gutekunst said. “But also just the versatility of being able to win outside with speed and then also inside with power. I just think there’s so much in front of him and I think that is where his best football will be.”

The decision to draft Van Ness meant that of the last 13 first-round picks made by the Packers, 12 of them have come on defense. That includes seven of the eight picks that Gutekunst has made.

“I think it’s just a little bit coincidence,” Gutekunst said of all the defensive players. “It’s not certainly something that we intentionally tried to do. But at the same time, it’s unusual that it’s that many years.”

The 21-year-old figures to find a role on the edge for the Packers, especially with outside linebacker Rashan Gary recovering from a torn ACL that will likely keep him out the first six or seven weeks of the season.