Ivan Pace Jr. needed a preseason response after a summer on shaky roster ground. The 25-year-old linebacker gave the Minnesota Vikings four tackles in Saturday’s 13-10 win over the New York Giants, but the plays around them mattered more. His performance looked like that of a player losing his grip on the job.
Pace recorded three solo tackles and one tackle for loss, but the total hid the ugly snaps. He took a poor angle on Devin Singletary’s 40-yard screen conversion on third-and-23. Two plays later, 6-foot-4 rookie Malachi Fields beat the 5-foot-10 Pace for a contested touchdown.
Minnesota’s usage alone was telling. Pace wasn’t among the top two off-ball linebackers, as Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson opened with the first-team defense, while the former UDFA worked with the second group beside rookie Jake Golday.
Jamal Adams’ injury created a Minnesota Vikings opening Ivan Pace Jr. couldn’t seize
Pace rose to popularity in 2023, bulldozing undrafted-rookie expectations. He started 11 games and posted a career-high 102 tackles, 2.5 sacks, one interception and one forced fumble. Across three seasons, he has 236 tackles, 6.5 sacks, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and three passes defensed.
Pace followed that debut with a career-high three sacks in 2024, although injuries limited him to 11 games. His role shrank in 2025, when he started six times and finished with 62 tackles and one sack. The downhill burst never disappeared, but missed tackles and coverage limitations made him harder for Brian Flores to trust.
Jamal Adams had already squeezed the linebacker rotation before suffering a knee injury against New York. That injury could reopen a hybrid role, yet Pace didn’t use the extra opportunity to separate himself. Adams produced a tackle for loss in 11 snaps before leaving, while Pace’s costliest coverage rep ended with Fields holding the football in the end zone.
Golday’s arrival as a second-round pick gave Minnesota a younger, longer option to develop behind Cashman and Wilson. Pace carries a $3.52 million restricted-free-agent salary, and releasing or trading him would create the same amount in cap space with no dead money. That’s unusually clean business for a front office trimming its final roster.
Pace has two preseason games left to change the conversation, starting with the Baltimore Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium. Minnesota also hosts Baltimore this week for joint practices, giving Pace an opportunity to clean up the angles and coverage reps that hurt him in New Jersey. If he doesn't, he could very well find himself on the wrong end of Aug. 30 cut-downs.
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