Once again the Pittsburgh Steelers have been active in free agency. While QB Russell Wilson may be the headline name of the 2024 Steelers free agency class, the player with the biggest impact could be former Baltimore Ravens LB Patrick Queen. Queen signed the largest free agent contract in Steelers history this past week and will hopefully help shore up the Steelers inside linebacker woes.
The signing has been mostly praised, but some people have questioned it due to Queen’s play taking a big jump after the Ravens paired him with All-Pro Roquan Smith. For this reason, CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin listed the Queen signing as one of the most interesting defensive singings so far.
“Queen moved from one AFC North team to another, and gives the Steelers the type of inside linebacker they’ve clearly been searching for, for a while,” wrote Dubin. “With pass-rushing outside linebackers like T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, the Steelers need their inside backers to be run-game thumpers and strong zone defenders. Queen certainly has the first part of that equation down and he has gotten better in coverage. He played his best football next to Roquan Smith, though, and there’s nobody like that for him to work with in Pittsburgh, so it’ll be interesting to see how his game translates.”
Queen is a really strong run defender, as Steelers Depot’s own Josh Carney highlighted in his film breakdown of Queen. In addition, Queen is athletic and can make plays in the pass coverage even if he is not amazing in it.
Queen’s play in pass coverage will be huge for the Steelers as they currently have LB Elandon Roberts but he is a thumper and not great in coverage and LB Cole Holcomb is coming off a season-ending knee injury and there are many question marks surrounding him at the moment. Queen will likely be paired with Roberts so it will be interesting to see how the Steelers utilize the two together. Queen will likely be asked to cover more than Roberts but Queen is also a very good blitzer from the inside so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Pittsburgh dial him up on an inside blitz every so often.
Queen received a huge contract for a reason and he will hopefully finally be able to answer the void the Steelers have felt at inside linebacker since losing Ryan Shazier. Inside linebacker is such an important position for Pittsburgh that it makes sense why they went out and spent the big bucks on Queen. Now Queen has to prove to the doubters that he didn’t ride on Smith’s coattails in Baltimore.
