GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Arguably the best player in Panthers history is Julius Peppers, who spent three seasons with the Packers.

Peppers, who started and ended his career with the Panthers, ranks fourth all-time in sacks and is considered one of the best pass rushers in the history of the game. Packers star Micah Parsons might wind up being regarded in the same light.

So, did Parsons watch much of Peppers?

“J.P., obviously, he’s a freak,” Peppers said on Thursday. “He’s one of the best, Hall of Famer, one of the GOATs. That’s kind of who I’m trying to get (Lukas) Van Ness to turn into with those freakish long arms and his power and what he did. Julius, he’s one of the great ones, and if you can get anybody to play the way he did, we’re going to have a lot of success.”

Peppers spent four seasons with the Chicago Bears, so Van Ness, a native of Barrington, Ill., was familiar with his game. Van Ness was 14 when Peppers played the first of four seasons in Chicago.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about the different body types of players that we can replicate and watch,” Van Ness said on Friday. “Micah’s really knowledgeable in terms of guys that are currently playing or have played that are similar body types or comparable to watch film of. I think that’s something that he’s taken me to the next level is the film aspect. I think that’s a forgotten aspect of the game that a lot of people don’t appreciate enough is how do you watch film and watching players.

“I grew up in the Chicago area, so he was someone that I looked up to and, obviously, when I got drafted here and seeing that he was playing here, as well, that’s a pretty good player to replicate. So, I definitely watch his tape and I definitely see some similarities in the way that we play – a physical, run-you-over, power-type game.”

With the urging of Parsons, Van Ness has dug much deeper into the game of a player who had double-digits sacks in 10 of 17 seasons and was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s all-decade teams of the 2000 and 2010s.

Green Bay Packers defensive end Lukas Van Ness (90) celebrates after sacking Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco. / William Glasheen-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

“This is probably the first time that I’ve actually taken the time to reach out for video and have his film on my iPad,” said Van Ness, who will miss Sunday’s game with a foot injury. “This is a league where we’re all compared against our peers so, on my own time, I review and watch a lot of guys, like Nick Bosa, Trey Hendrickson, Brian Burns. There’s a bunch of them – a whole host of guys.

“Everyone’s different, everyone has things they’re good at, but the more you can learn and watch, it’s only going to help you out.”

The one easy similarity between the two is their size. Van Ness is listed at 6-foot-5 and 272 pounds. That makes him much closer from a body-type perspective to Peppers (6-foot-7, 295 pounds) than Parsons (6-foot-3, 250 pounds).

So, what can Van Ness, who has only 8.5 career sacks but was coming on strong at the time of the injury, take away from watching the legendary Peppers that he can possibly unleash when he returns to action?

“He’s obviously a bigger guy, a big body, but you can see the way he utilizes his speed and his get-off to his advantage, too,” Van Ness said. “There’s guys who play with power and are bigger body types, but they tend to be slower off the ball. I think that’s what I see is the hybrid to also add some speed into your bag on top of being able to physically dominate a guy.

“That’s where I liked it in the way that he set up a lot of his rushes was, ‘I’m going to dominate you with power and then off of that is where I can start to dictate the game.’ Clay (Matthews) operated the same way. Luckily, we’ve had some pretty good pass rushers come through here, so there’s a lot of good people to look at.”