Vikings Officially Get Attacking Linebacker Under Contract
All along, the plan has been to keep Ivan Pace Jr. in the Twin Cities, if only for the short term. That’s now locked-in with ink getting tossed down onto paper.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter — when he’s not adding fuel to the Jonathan Greenard fire — offers up the clarity: “Vikings restricted free agent LB Ivan Pace signed his tender today, per his agents Drew Rosenhaus and Kyle Lincoln.”
Vikings Officially Get Ivan Pace Under Contract
No matter how this situation develops, Mr. Pace will be understood as a huge success in Minnesota.
The UDFA ‘backer has exceeded any reasonable set of expectations. Going undrafted means that sticking around on the 53-man roster is reason for applause. But what of the players who rise to not just a job on specials but also one on either offense or defense? Ultra impressive stuff.
During the 2023 season, the rookie linebacker quickly proved that the NFL made a mistake by overlooking him.
He was featured prominently in the Brian Flores defense, a coach who was similarly working within his debut season in the Twin Cities. The two were natural allies in their take-no-prisoners, all-out aggression approach to football. Pace’s rookie season involved playing in all seventeen games, starting eleven. He tossed 102 tackles onto the stat sheet while earning 2.5 sacks, 9 quarterback hits, and an interception.
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Clearly, the bright lights of the NFL weren’t an issue for the Cincinnati Bearcat.
What has been discouraging is that Pace hasn’t fully been able to build off of that early promise. As a sophomore, Pace functioned alongside Blake Cashman as the LB2. Still a starter, Pace started taking a smaller bite of the pie, limited to a smaller percentage of the defense’s snaps.
Moving forward into Pace’s third season makes the issue even more prominent. The Vikings had added veteran Eric Wilson to function as the LB3 and to be a leader for the special teams coverage. Before too long, Mr. Wilson got promoted to the LB2 job, taking over for Pace along the way. Worse yet (for Pace, at least), Wilson is now back under a meaty contract that reveals he’s still a starter.
With a cap charge sitting at $3,520,000, Ivan Pace operates in a middle-class range for NFL linebackers, albeit on the lower end. Essentially any path forward is possible, meaning an extension or a trade could occur. Or, perhaps, the Vikings let him function in a prove-it year to see if he can reclaim some former magic while demonstrating improvement.
In particular, Pace needs to eliminate the missed tackles. Doing so will represent a huge win for him personally and the Vikings as a team. What would make things even more promising is if he were to demonstrate better coverage abilities, further rounding out his game. Becoming better in coverage will lead to a beefy payday next year.
The Vikings don’t have enough promising young talent. At 25, Pace stands out as one of the few young lads on the roster to have proven to be capable of being a strong ball player. Getting him back to being the best version of himself is a sneaky story to monitor as the 2026 offseason keeps marching along.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
