Which undrafted free agents could make an impact in the 2023 NFL season?

#9. Ivan Pace Jr., LB, Minnesota Vikings (Cincinnati)

Cincinnati linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.

What if I told you two of my top-ten linebacker prospects didn’t hear their names called. This was a relatively weak class, especially beyond the top three or four, with a bunch of likely backups and special teamers.

Ivan Pace was a lowly-recruited, undersized LB, who broke out at Miami of Ohio in 2021, when he was named first-team All-MAC thanks to leading the conference with 125 total tackles, with 13 of those for loss and four sacks. Then he transferred to Cincinnati and put his name more in the national spotlight, as the AAC Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-American, thanks to 136 combined stops, 20.5 of those for loss, nine sacks, four PBUs and a couple of forced fumbles.

So how the hell did he go undrafted? Well, he’s only 5’11” with and 30 and ¼-inch arms. Also well, he absolutely should have been picked.

This guy has good thickness throughout his frame and plays way bigger than his size would indicate, even though the 230 pounds he packs are actually slightly above-average for this year’s crop of backers. The way he can step to the hip and rip through the reach of offensive linemen and sort of slip through traffic in order to get to the ball is highly impressive.

He has uncanny contact balance and flexibility to contort his body and stay upright versus much larger bodies, consistently winning the leverage battle and maximizing that low center of gravity. Plus, this past season I thought his diagnosing skills and willingness to just “make a play” really stood out.

In coverage, he makes sure to disrupt targets in his vicinity and whether it’s some shallow crossers being thrown in front of him or the quarterback deciding to take off on a bootleg, this kid will get there in a hurry and proceed to lay the wood. With all that being said, his best quality I think is actually what he can provide as a pressure player.

This guy’s quick-twitch to make blockers freeze their feet and get to their edges with a little wiggle, along with linking his upper and lower half with excellent timing of his hand-swipes, make him extremely tough to slow down. During Senior Bowl in particular, he was pretty much unblocked for the running backs during one-on-one, cross-facing them over and over again. That’s how he led all off-ball linebackers with 55 total pressures last season.

Pace is an obvious outlier in terms of size, ranking in the first percentile in height and arm length, which will limit his ability to punch off blockers and finish tackles as consistently at the pro level.

Wider bodies can cover him up, when able to climb straight up to him and we have very little tape of him being asked to play true man-coverage against backs and tight-ends, where we don’t know if he’s capable of carrying guys down the middle of the field. However, that’s also not what he should be tasked with.

Even with the size limitations in mind, I think watching Malcolm Rodriguez coming out of Oklahoma State and excelling as a rookie for the Detroit Lions should give us some comfort in guys with great instincts and violence to their game being able to overcome those.

With how sturdy Pace is in traffic, I think he can definitely play on some early downs and where I really want to see him unleashed is as a blitzing specialist in passing situations. Jordan Hicks and Troy Reeder aren’t guys you want to keep on the field in those spots.

So with how aggressive Brian Flores wants to be with all the cover-zero rain, a guy that has great awareness and can win his matchups as a blitzer with a regularity seems like a beautiful fit, even if it’s just a specific role he fulfills.