The Green Bay Packers already know what a healthy Lukas Van Ness can look like with Micah Parsons still working back from an ACL injury.
That has not stopped outside evaluators from putting another veteran edge rusher on Green Bay’s radar as the November trade deadline comes into view.
In his 2026 NFL Trade Block Big Board entering Week 3, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox listed Miami Dolphins edge rusher Josh Uche among the league’s more realistic midseason targets and named the Packers as one of two potential suitors, projecting Uche’s value at a conditional 2027 sixth-round pick.
That is a modest ask for a 28-year-old who once posted 11.5 sacks in a single season, owns 21.5 sacks for his career and is playing on a one-year deal that expires after this year.
Uche is not a mystery to NFL front offices. A second-round pick out of Michigan in 2020, he has 21.5 career sacks across stops in New England, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and now Miami.
The Dolphins signed him in March as a veteran presence on a youth-first roster.
Through two weeks, he has played about half of Miami’s defensive snaps, with 10 tackles and a tackle for loss.
Knox’s point is less about peak production than availability: Miami is 0-2 and focused on evaluating younger pieces, which makes a pending free agent a logical chip if the slide continues.
From a Packers perspective, the fit is situational rather than splashy. Green Bay already moved Rashan Gary in the offseason and is leaning on Van Ness while Parsons remains out.
A late-round conditional pick for a rusher who can spell starters on passing downs would be the kind of low-risk addition Brian Gutekunst has used before. Uche’s best tape still shows first-step burst and the ability to finish when he wins the corner.
He does not need to start 70 percent of the snaps to help a defense that wants more consistent pressure before Parsons is back at full strength.
There is no indication Green Bay has engaged Miami, and Knox also listed the Baltimore Ravens as a possible landing spot.
Uche would become an unrestricted free agent in the spring either way, so any deal would be about 2026 help, not a long-term contract.
Still, for a Packers team trying to stay in the NFC race without overpaying for a rental, the price Knox floated is the part that will linger in Titletown: a veteran pass rusher for a conditional sixth-rounder, if the Dolphins decide the rebuild cannot wait until January.
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