Vikings Near Crossroads with Fan Favorite Player
The Vikings are nearing a difficult decision with linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.
In 2025, Mr. Pace has moved down from LB2 to LB3. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has continued to work the linebacker into the mix, ensuring that the former undrafted player hasn’t seen his impact completely nullified even as it has been muted. Will the Vikings opt to keep him around?
Vikings Near Crossroads with Ivan Pace Jr.
Minnesota’s roster is lacking youthful talent, especially on defense.
Several years of poor drafting have resulted in veterans shouldering the burden for Coach Flores, someone who runs a sophisticated scheme that lends itself to intelligent veterans such as Josh Metellus, Blake Cashman, and so on. Some young fellas are emerging — edge rusher Dallas Turner, defensive tackle Jalen Redmond, and safety Jay Ward, among others — but the cupboard is somewhat bare.
In Pace, the Vikings have an attacking 24-year-old linebacker who could be part of the solution for years to come.
The issue — or crossroads, as the title suggests — is that Minnesota needs to make an explicit decision on the defender. Pace is coming to the end of his third season in the NFL, meaning his original UDFA contract is soon to reach completion. His status as an RFA means that Minnesota has the leverage. What remains to be seen is if they’ll lean on that leverage to construct a new contract.
Even as a player who got bumped down, Pace is wildly underpaid. He’s accounting for just a touch beyond $1 million in 2025, well below what he would demand were he being paid according to his on-field abilities. Is Minnesota going to be the team that hands out the well-deserved raise?
Already, Minnesota is working with a projected $36 million in cap debt next year. Part of what makes that reality more discouraging is that the cap outlook only contains 41 contracts, well below the top-51 cutoff of the offseason. So, just signing players to bargain-bin deals will exacerbate the problem. What of retaining the talent who will demand more than the bargain-bin contracts?
Ivan Pace is sitting on 53 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 6 quarterback hits. These statistics have arrived across thirteen games, starting in six contests.
The snap total is coming in at 309 on defense (37% of the total, easily a career low) and 252 on special teams (73% of the total, easily a career high).
On PFF — some love the site, others don’t love the site — puts Mr. Pace at 79th out of 88 linebackers under consideration. The 42.2 grade is very poor. Standing in stark contrast to his very impressive 70.0 pass rush grade is his terrible 29.7 pass coverage grade.
Pace is therefore a promising-but-flawed young player who has been a huge success as an undrafted player. Securing just a special teams player within the UDFA talent pool is great work; securing someone capable of helping on both specials and defense has been a home run even if does get traded away.
Next up for Pace and the Vikings is a Sunday Night Football game in Dallas. Seeing the linebacker make Dak Prescott skittish in the pocket will go a long way in helping Minnesota put a pair of wins together.
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