In every free agency, players change teams. But they don’t usually jump from Baltimore to Pittsburgh or vice versa. So when now former Ravens LB Patrick Queen inked a three-year deal with the Steelers, his ex-Ravens teammates struggled to make sense of it. On the latest episode of his Punch Line Podcast, Baltimore Ravens CB Marlon Humphrey reacted to not only losing Queen from the team but to its biggest rival.
“PQ, I’ll be honest with you. When I saw that, I got mad emotional. I’m just going to be honest with you,” he said. “Top linebacker in free agency…I was just like, ‘bro, the Steelers. I can’t believe this.'”
Selected by the Ravens in the first round of the 2020 draft, Queen had a slow start to his NFL career. But he’s steadily improved year by year, becoming a top pairing alongside Roquan Smith in 2023. Queen made his first Pro Bowl and was named second-team All-Pro, finishing this past year with 133 tackles, 3.5 sacks, one interception, and one forced fumble.
After locking up Smith to a long-term deal in early 2023 and retaining DT Justin Madubuike ahead of free agency to a mega-contract, the expectation was for Queen to sign somewhere else. Reuniting with former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald in Seattle seemed like a logical fit. But Pittsburgh swooped in with a splash signing the day before the league year officially began, agreeing to a three-year, $41 million contract. Queen is the team’s highest-paid external free agent in history, surpassing CB Joe Haden’s three-year, $27 million deal in 2017, another player who stayed in the AFC North.
Humphrey had a hard time coming to grips with losing Queen but will now see him twice a year on the other side of the rivalry. He texted Queen to hear how he ended up with Pittsburgh.
“I’m like, I gotta text PQ. I forgot what I even said but I was like, ‘Bro, tell me this was the only option. You have to help me get through this here. If you just sit here and tell me you just chose the Steelers.’ He said it was the best situation,” Humphrey said. And then he told me the other team. And then I was like, ‘I hear you. I do hear you.’…once he did tell me his situation though, I could understand a little bit.'”
Marlon Humphrey didn’t elaborate on the comment, but it sounds like another team was involved in pursuing Queen. And apparently whoever that other club was made Humphrey understand why Queen signed with Pittsburgh.
He becomes one of the most notable names to switch to the “dark side” throughout their career and one of the few to make an immediate switch. For the Steelers, Rod Woodson, Carnell Lake, Le’Veon Bell, and Eric Green all started in Pittsburgh before winding up in Baltimore but all had stops in between, cushioning the blow.
Players who made a next-season switch to the opposite end of the rivalry include RB Bam Morris, OT Alejandro Villanueva, DL Chris Wormley (traded to Pittsburgh by Baltimore), and LB Jerry Olsavsky (who took an AFC Central tour in 1998, signing with the Cincinnati Bengals before getting hurt in the summer, released, and signing with Baltimore for the year).
Humphrey will learn to adjust. But it’ll take some time for him to get his heart around seeing No. 6 wear Black and Gold instead of purple.
“It’s freakin’ weird,” he said. “It’s weird…you’re almost not even believing it that it was true.”
Humphrey said Mike Tomlin’s speaking skills probably helped convince Queen playing against his former team was the right move.
“Mike Tomlin is an enabler…him and PQ are probably the perfect little freakin’ match. He just gas him up like, ‘The Ravens didn’t want you. They hated you over there.'”
That comment, for the record, was made more in jest than it was as an actual barb. But Queen once shared the story of Tomlin yelling at him that he wasn’t a Raven, the implication being he hadn’t beaten the Steelers to call himself a true part of the rivalry. Now, they’re on the same team. Much to Marlon Humphrey’s very real dismay.
Catch the whole episode below.
