At one point early in the season, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen looked like he was becoming the inside linebacker the Steelers thought they were getting in free agency in 2024.
But in recent weeks Queen had taken a step backwards for the Steelers, leading to some significant struggles at the position. He’s played some sloppy, lackadaisical football at times and has even criticized himself for having poor effort.
Against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 10, he was a mess once again, and the missed tackles issues continued to be a real problem.
In Week 11 against the Cincinnati Bengals though, Queen had a bounce-back performance, playing the run well and looking good in coverage at times, too. He also provided that physical, edgy mentality Pittsburgh’s defense needs from him snap to snap.
Queen played all 66 snaps Sunday against the Bengals, grading out at a 77.0 overall from Pro Football Focus. Most impressively, Queen didn’t miss a single tackle, marking just the third time this season that he didn’t have a missed tackle in a game.
Let’s take a look at Queen’s performance in today’s film room.
Though Queen had a strong performance on Sunday, it didn’t start out that way.
He has said that he’s struggled to warm up to it at times and has been upset with his effort on some plays. This 15-yard Chase Brown run is one Queen is going to want back, due in large part to effort.
This just isn’t good enough. He doesn’t make much of an effort to get his head inside and doesn’t get off the block with much urgency. It allows Brown to run right by him. Fortunately, Queen woke up after that.
Good stick in the hole here, Queen closing down efficiently from the backside to pop Brown.
Queen plays with good eyes and patience here, not trying to do too much while maintaining his backside gap. He does a nice job of closing the gap to the offensive lineman and then stays square to land a blow on Brown for a short gain.
This play really seemed to get Queen going physically.
Anytime an offensive tackle gets his hands on Queen, it tends to ruin the rep for the linebacker. But he plays with good effort here against Amarius Mims while working across the formation.
When Queen is running to the ball and finishing, good things happen. He could have just taken this play off after Mims snatched him up. But Queen started to get going and flowed across the formation, combining with Payton Wilson for the run stop.
This was Queen’s play of the day. It got him fired up, and when Queen is engaged, look out.
That’s a heck of a read from the linebacker, vacating his area of coverage to fly across the field and land a big hit on Brown in space. Watch the way Jalen Ramsey celebrates with him, too. Queen’s attitude is one of the biggest keys to the defense. When he’s fired up, the rest of the defense feeds off it.
If he’s going through the motions and doesn’t seem to have much juice, the defense feeds off that, too.
After that big hit, Queen was all over the field.
Again, this is a 7-yard run from Brown so it’s not great for the Steelers. But watch Queen.
Relentless. Get off the block, maintain balance and fly to the football. His eyes were very good in this game, finding the football quickly in the run game.
The play above is another example of that. When he’s confident and locked in, his eyes are good and he’s reading things very quickly.
When the eyes are good, his feet are quick and he’s flying to the football. Good pursuit here to team up with Brandin Echols and Malik Harrison for the run stop.
He finished his day with one of the better reps against the run I’ve seen from Queen in his year and a half with the Steelers.
Too often Queen allows linemen to climb to him, get hands on him and win the rep. He isn’t going to stack and shed consistently. He’s much better at slipping under blocks, and teams know that. He can take himself out of plays when he slips under blocks.
But here he stays square, has a nice quick punch to the chest of the guard, and then is able to slide over and make the play with rookie defensive lineman Yahya Black to stop the running back in his tracks. It’s a heck of a play by Black to two-gap and make the stop, but I can’t take my eyes off Queen here.
Great job of getting off the block and getting in on the run stop.
Now, the challenge with Queen is replicating that type of performance. He’s been hot and cold throughout his Steelers tenure. When he’s on, he’s one of the better linebackers in football. When he’s off, well, let’s just say he’s an easy target for criticism.
Sunday’s performance was a good one. Time to build on it now.
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