Obviously, the biggest questions about the Green Bay Packers’ edge rusher unit all revolve around Micah Parsons. When will he return? What will he look like when he’s back on the field? Who will step up in his place until he comes back?
Beyond the Parsons of it all, let’s take a look at the other edge rushers on the team and give you a preview of what is to come in the latest edition of our roster preview.
Lukas Van Ness
For the first time since high school, Lukas Van Ness became a situational starter in 2025. Van Ness’
best trait is probably that he can play on the edge but also kick inside to defensive tackle in obvious passing situations, though he might not have the freedom to do so in 2026 until Parsons is back from his ACL tear.
One of the big questions, too, is how the Packers will manage Van Ness’ snaps on special teams if he does take over a starting role. For the majority of his career, Van Ness has been on the punt team, which means that he’s starting defensive drives after doing a 40-plus-yard sprint, possibly a factor in why he hasn’t been pushed into a starting role until injuries forced Green Bay’s hand.
You could argue, and I would, that Van Ness’ best play in his career came from mid to late 2025, even though he dealt with a nagging foot injury. To me, he was the best player on the field for the Packers in their loss against the Baltimore Ravens, for example.
At just 24 years old, he’s still younger than some of the undrafted rookie free agents that Green Bay signed this offseason. The team also just picked up his fifth-year option, so they clearly still believe that the former first-round pick is developing.
I’m not sure LVN will ever be a double-digit sack player, just because of how much the Packers have used him on the interior, but I am optimistic that he could be an above-average starter for them and a quality number two option when Parsons comes back.
Barryn Sorrell
Right now, the player who stands to gain the most with Micah Parsons out, from a playing time perspective, is probably 2025 fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell. He is probably the favorite to be the starter opposite of Lukas Van Ness, based on last year’s rotation. It doesn’t hurt him that the team also moved off Rashan Gary and Kingsley Enagbare, who were also ahead of Sorrell on the depth chart in 2025.
Last year, Sorrell made one start and played 20 percent of the team’s defensive snaps over 14 games. Like Van Ness, he’s another run game edge setter who can play some snaps inside on obvious passing downs.
Brenton Cox Jr.
Next in line, and probably the biggest threat to Barryn Sorrell for the starting role right now, is Brenton Cox Jr., whose pressure numbers over the years have been more impressive than his film. There was some hope that after posting four sacks in just seven games in 2024 that he’d have a big 2025, but he wound up playing just four games last year in part because of injury, in part because of the crowded edge room and in part because he has not been a contributor on special teams.
He was a big deal when he signed with the Packers as a UDFA in 2023, as many expected him to be a draft choice, but he’s only played in five games per year and 81 defensive snaps per season since he joined Green Bay. Still, if we’re talking about NFL on-field track record, he’s really the only player with defensive experience outside of Lukas Van Ness and Barryn Sorrell at the position.
Dani Dennis-Sutton
There were plenty of mock drafts that had Packers rookie Dani Dennis-Sutton going in the second round of the 2026 draft. Ultimately, Green Bay picked him in the fourth round, even though general manager Brian Gutekunst stated post-draft that the Packers tried to move into the third round to draft Dennis-Sutton earlier.
At 6’5” and 258 pounds, the former high school All-American has the frame of a Robert Quinn type of edge bender and was able to record 23.5 sacks and 34.5 tackles for losses at Penn State. He has a chance to see the field this year, but he’s going to have to go through Barryn Sorrell and Brenton Cox Jr. first before he can earn the injury replacement role for Micah Parsons.
Collin Oliver
We didn’t see Collin Oliver at all last preseason, as the rookie fifth-round pick missed all of training camp with a hamstring injury that eventually led him to start the regular season on the physically unable to perform list. In the regular season, Oliver got a look in just one game, the Packers’ JV game against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 18, where he played 31 defensive snaps.
Outside of those reps, all we have to go off of is Oliver’s college tape. At Oklahoma State, Oliver was a premier speed rusher, but he’s undersized, as he measured in just short of 6’2” and 240 pounds at the combine. He bounced between the edge position and off-ball linebacker with the Cowboys, but it seems like Green Bay wants him to focus on playing the edge at the next level, which, to be fair, was his best position in college.
Because of how little he played in 2025, Oliver is a bit of an unknown. Keep an eye on him in the preseason, because he has the potential to rise up the depth chart or even become a player who misses the 53-man roster cut. Oliver has maybe the widest range of outcomes for any player on the roster going into the season.
Arron Mosby
Personally, I don’t think of Arron Mosby as a defender as much as a special teams player. Mosby is one of the Packers’ best special teamers, but the team regularly keeps him on the practice squad to start the year, before promoting him off the practice squad for game action when injuries start to pile up.
Mosby has played both the edge and off-ball linebacker positions in his NFL career, but he’s only played off the edge for Green Bay.
Last year, Mosby played just 17 defensive snaps to 221 special teams, for perspective. When he was active for games, he played 77 percent of the team’s total special teams reps, which is an incredible amount. Despite only being a part-time player for the Packers, he was only out-snapped on special teams last year by Isaiah McDuffie (302 reps), Ty’Ron Hopper (278) and Chris Brooks (230).
Nyjalik Kelly
The Packers gave UCF’s Nyjalik Kelly a pretty significant amount of guarantees, more than some draft picks, to sign with Green Bay post-draft as an undrafted free agent. The former high school All-American was a starter for the Miami Hurricanes early on in his college career before an injury led to him being replaced by future NFL draft picks.
At UCF, he recorded 8.5 sacks and 17 tackles for losses over two years. He’s still a raw player, but the 21-year-old does have some NFL skills. The big question is whether he’ll finally take that next step with NFL coaching and how quickly he can do so.
Dante Barnett
Dante Barnett is the Packers’ international player exemption, so he doesn’t count against Green Bay’s 90-man roster. Barnett was born and raised in England and was discovered through the NFL Academy, the league’s international youth development system. He received Division 1 offers coming out of the NFL Academy, but due to grades ended up playing for Division 3’s Dickinson College.
He only played one year for Dickinson, as paying his way through school proved to be too much for him financially. He played in five games and recorded one sack and one tackle for a loss as a true freshman.
After leaving the sport for some time, he resurfaced via the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. After training with the program, he ran a 4.70-second 40-yard dash at 6’1” and 275 pounds. He got his original start in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, who signed him last April, but he was released by the team in July.
Barnett joined the Packers in late October of last year, and we haven’t had the opportunity to see him play in the preseason or regular season for Green Bay.
As a reminder, the Packers will have a typical 16-man practice squad, but they will also get onr practice squad spot for an international exemption, too. As of now, Barnett looks like he’s going to take up that exemption role on the team, unless you see them move off Barnett for another option.
