It’s a Baltimore Ravens reunion in the Steel City so far in free agency. Sort of.
After landing standout linebacker Patrick Queen — a Second Team All-Pro in 2023 — on a three-year, $41 million deal in free agency, snagging him away from the Ravens, the Steelers later added veteran safety DeShon Elliott on a two-year, $6 million deal, shoring up the depth chart a bit at safety.
The signings of Queen and Elliott reunited two former teammates who spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons together in Baltimore before Elliott left the Ravens for the Detroit Lions in free agency for the 2022 season and then spent the 2023 season with the Dolphins.
Now, they are reunited in Pittsburgh and will play key roles defensively for the Steelers. In fact, Queen called Elliott to recruit him to Pittsburgh after deciding to join the Black and Gold.
During his introductory press conference Friday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side, Queen called Elliott a “dawg” and added that the hard-hitting safety is exactly the type of guy he wants to play on the defensive side of the football with.
“Yeah, he’s another dawg, another guy that’s fierce. Just loves to go down and hit people,” Queen said of Elliott, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “And then he can cover as well. So when you got a guy like that, that could do both, your defense can do more. Just having played with him for a few years and just knowing him, he’s the guy that has his teammates’ back, and that’s the type of guy that I wanna play on our side.”
Queen’s statement that Elliott just “loves to go down and hit people” is as accurate as it gets. Elliott brings a physical, violent style of play from the safety position, even with all of the rule changes occurring in the name of player safety.
He still plays with an edge and helps set the tone defensively. Queen saw that firsthand during their two seasons in Baltimore together.
That continued even when Elliott wasn’t in Baltimore. Elliott was the player who hit Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes during the playoffs this year, breaking his helmet.
In his own introductory press conference Friday, Elliott leaned into that physical style and demeanor as well, saying all the right things to endear himself to the Steelers’ fanbase. That style shows up on tape, too, and should play very well in the secondary next to Minkah Fitzpatrick at the safety position.
Queen knows all about Elliott, and the Steelers are going to find out in a more in-depth way about Elliot soon, too. In Queen’s words, they added another “dawg” to the defense.
