People are starting to notice that Ivan Pace Jr. may very well be the real deal and there’s growing speculation that he could supplant Brian Asamoah II for the starting inside linebacker job next to Jordan Hicks in Minnesota’s defense.
The undrafted free agent who starred at the University of Cincinnati got the start in Minnesota’s 24-13 preseason loss to Seattle Thursday night and he tied for the team lead with six tackles.
Afterward, Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, tweeted what most Vikings beat writers have been thinking for weeks: “Don’t be shocked if Pace Jr. ends up being the rare [undrafted free agent] rookie starter.”
Don’t be shocked if Pace Jr. ends up being the rare UDFA rookie starter. He’s been that good so far since getting to Minnesota. https://t.co/Ko9xA6jyPx
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) August 11, 2023
Purple Insider’s Matthew Coller agrees.
“Pace Jr. confirmed in the first preseason game what we have been seeing from him in practice. He’s fast and extremely aggressive and that is going to go a long way in Brian Flores’s defense,” Coller told Bring Me The Sports.
Chris Trapasso, an NFL Draft analyst for CBS Sports, put together a video showing all of the plays where Pace popped on film Thursday night.
— Chris Trapasso 🏈 (@ChrisTrapasso) August 11, 2023
Most importantly, head coach Kevin O’Connell likes what he sees from Pace.
“You just see him around the ball a lot. He got a lot of green-dot work calling the defense, which I know he was looking forward to,” O’Connell said Thursday night. “All that guy does is continue to do what he’s done his whole career. Which is make a lot of plays, be around the football, savvy instincts, and then when he sees it, he’s downhill making plays.
“Really excited about where he’s at right now,” he continued. “Now it’s the same thing with a lot of the players that are off to a really good start: Can you consistently sustain it through training camp and through the joint-practice work when we’re really in a controlled setting, it’s for real, and we’re trying to see where we’re at as a football team?”
Pro Football Focus had Pace at the top of its linebacker grades in college football last year and he was PFF’s No. 1 undrafted free agent. His overall grade of 93.2 led all linebackers in the FBS and a 90.7 run-defense grade (ranked third among linebackers) while leading FBS linebackers with 55 pressures and 12 sacks.
