When the Jets signed Calvin Pace in 2008, the thought was he would become the pass rusher the team had been missing since trading John Abraham.
Pace had a total of 15 sacks in his first two seasons, but then his production dropped and the criticism began to mount. Things bottomed out in 2012 when he had just three sacks. But Pace, 33, has regained his old form this season. He has eight sacks, tying his career high reached in 2009 and has a shot at his first double-digit sack season.
“It would be great,” Pace said of getting 10 sacks. “It’s something that I had a goal of in the beginning of the season. I’m not going to say it’s the ultimate goal. I’d love to keep playing, but it would be nice to show some of the people that the old man’s got a little something left.”
The Jets cut Pace in the offseason as a salary-cap casualty, but then brought him back for a cheaper price two months later. The move has paid off as Pace has been the team’s second-best pass rusher behind Muhammad Wilkerson. Pace saw what life away from the NFL was like and returned to the Jets a bit more motivated than he was last year.
“If you play this game long enough, you’ll get cut at some point in time,” Pace said. “That played into it and the fact that I’m man enough to realize that last year was not my best work. I had some deficiencies in my game, which I needed to strengthen and do better, which is pass rushing. That’s the type of league it is now — it’s pass, pass, pass. You have to have guys that can put pressure on the quarterback. … It’s a situation where I had to go get better [at rushing the quarterback]. I’m not great at it, but I feel more comfortable. It took me 10 years to finally realize it.”
Pace said he also has benefited from the play of Wilkerson and rookie Sheldon Richardson.
“I’m not going to say it’s easy, but they have to focus in on somebody and more times than not it’s not me,” Pace said. “I’m left with some one-on-ones so it’s about capitalizing and making plays.”
After the way he has played this season, Pace would like to keep it going for two or three more years in the “right situation,” he said. For him, that would be staying a Jet.
“In a perfect world,” Pace said, “I’d like to retire a Jet.”