The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Patrick Queen at the beginning of free agency and added a whole lot of personality to their defense in doing so. We have all seen him clap back at fans on X throughout the offseason. And he was very clear in one of his opening press conferences with the team that he wants to play the villain now that he has defected from one side of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry to the other.
Having played for the Ravens and being the trash-talking player that he is, Queen has antagonized some of his new teammates in the past. It would appear Connor Heyward is one of those players. NFL Films posted a teaser on X to promote the annual NFL Top 100 that will begin airing on July 22, and the Heyward brothers discuss an adversarial exchange between Connor Heyward and Patrick Queen.
“He got in it with him,” Cam Heyward said of his brother and Queen. “They were jawing back and forth a little bit.”
Connor Heyward responded, “A little bit. Coach [Mike] Tomlin pointed out one time Patrick Queen tried to hit me a little bit after the play, and he showed the team before the game. So he was just being a little bit petty, but he’s a great player.”
It then cut over to Marlon Humphrey and Patrick Queen talking trash to the camera in a mic’d up segment. Cameron Heyward put it perfectly, “I like his nature. As a defender, you love it. As an offensive player, you don’t.”
As a Steeler, Pittsburgh fans are likely to embrace Queen’s boisterous personality, especially when it antagonizes their rivals. But there are at least a few Steelers offensive players who might need extra time to warm up to him.
Queen talked about some back-and-forth exchanges he previously had with RB Jaylen Warren. Could this be the makings of this year’s version of a training camp brawl? It wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Nor would it concern me. The fights at training camp have happened plenty of times over the years. Offensive and defensive players are practicing against each other daily for multiple weeks and tempers can flare. If Queen’s trash talk truly knows no bounds, then that could feed into tensions at camp.
It is pretty rare to see a top-level player from one side of the rivalry go to the other team, so it is interesting to see those dynamics now play out in the locker room. The Steelers’ defense figures to be exceptionally good in 2024. That should give Queen plenty of opportunities to talk smack on the field.
Queen responded to this clip on X and said, “We all good now.”
