Patrick Queen
Patrick Queen
He’s entering the final year of his contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he’s coming off a rather disappointing season that saw him raise concerns with the defensive scheme, miss far too many tackles, and become a liability in pass coverage.
Yet some NFL executives, scouts and coaches still view inside linebacker Patrick Queen among the best at his position.
Queen landed among honorable mentions Tuesday morning in ESPN’s off-ball linebacker rankings, joining names like the Las Vegas Raiders’ Quay Walker, Dallas’ DeMarvion Overshown, and the New York Jets’ Demario Davis.
“He is very good when he turns it on and uses his speed and strength. His play is too inconsistent for my taste,” one AFC personnel evaluator said of Queen in the rankings.
That sums up Queen very well.
When the Steelers made the significant splash move in free agency ahead of the 2024 season, signing Queen to a three-year deal and stealing him away from the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens, it was a move expected to solve the position’s problems in the Steel City.
Since then, he’s been very up and down. While he’s stayed on the field consistently, playing heavy snaps and even battling through injuries, his play hasn’t been what many expected.
Last season, Queen played 1,180 snaps, grading out at a 43.5 overall from Pro Football Focus. It was a significant decline from the 56.8 overall grade he had in his first year in the Steel City. Along with that poor grade, Queen was a mess as a run defender and was targeted heavily in pass coverage.
The veteran linebacker was charged with allowing 74 receptions on 93 targets for 829 yards and three touchdowns. He also missed a team-high 28 tackles, as charted here at Steelers Depot, which is the most ever in a single season.
Those struggles in coverage and from a tackling perspective came to a head after the Week 12 loss to the Chicago Bears on the road as Queen signaled that schematic issues were putting guys in poor positions. Now, things have changed dramatically in Pittsburgh as former head coach Mike Tomlin and former defensive coordinator Teryl Austin are gone, and Patrick Graham comes in to oversee the defense under new head coach Mike McCarthy.
There doesn’t appear to be an extension looming for Queen, who was the subject of trade rumors this offseason, leading to further frustrations for the veteran linebacker.
But with those changes defensively, and a better play caller in Graham in place, the expectation is Queen takes a step forward and becomes the linebacker the Steelers envisioned he would be.