The NFL Top 100 players list reveal continued today, and Pittsburgh Steelers LB Patrick Queen came in at No. 64. Queen excelled last season as a member of the Baltimore Ravens before signing the richest free agent contract in Steelers’ history to join the team.
Queen joins Pittsburgh after racking up 133 tackles, 3,5 sacks, an interception and six passes defensed last season. Playing alongside Roquan Smith, Queen was a second-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowler for the first time in his career. Baltimore declined his fifth-year option ahead of the 2023 season, and Queen went out and had the best season of his career and cashed in to join the division-rival Steelers.
Queen joins a linebacker corps that also includes Elandon Roberts, rookie Payton Wilson, Cole Holcomb and Tyler Matakevich as well as Mark Robinson. Holcomb’s status to start the season is up in the air, but regardless, Queen is the unquestioned top dog in the inside linebacker room.
Queen is a trash talker, something that was highlighted in the video the NFL released announcing Queen at No. 64, as well as his ability to play sideline-to-sideline. Queen was seen jawing with Minkah Fitzpatrick ahead of Pittsburgh’s Week 5 matchup with the Ravens last season in the video announcing Fitzpatrick’s selection as the NFL’s 79th-best player.
In the NFL Top 100 video of #Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, he can be heard jawing with current teammate Patrick Queen prior to last season’s Week 5 matchup at Acrisure Stadium against the #Ravens. pic.twitter.com/97BtuY5gSb
— Josh Carney (@ByJoshCarney) July 23, 2024
Pittsburgh’s inside linebacker room has been a sore spot for years. Despite improvement last season, injuries to Holcomb and Kwon Alexander thinned depth at the position and as a result, the play suffered down the stretch. Adding Queen should help elevate the inside linebacker position and the defense as a whole as he’ll join fellow All-Pros in Fitzpatrick, T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward as well as a burgeoning star in Alex Highsmith.
With players reporting to training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., today, we’ll get to see Queen in a Steelers uniform for the first time since OTAs and minicamp. There have been questions about whether he can lead the inside linebacker room and maintain his quality of play without Roquan Smith, and Queen is surely looking to prove the doubters wrong and put up a big season in his first year in the Black and Gold.
If he can play the way he did last season or manage to improve, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Queen on this list again next season, and potentially a few spots higher.
