Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin used to ruffle Patrick Queen’s feathers when on the opposite sideline. The former Baltimore Ravens linebacker previously expressed anger over Tomlin telling him he wasn’t a Raven. It didn’t take long for Tomlin to explain his side of the story, after paying him $41 million in free agency.
“The whole time I was pissed off being over there. And then coming over here is like, instant respect, instant gratitude”, Queen said on the WDVE Morning Show on Wednesday. “You kind of sense what he was getting at then, but it don’t make sense because obviously you’re on the other team.
“But he made it make sense to me when I got here. He was just like, ‘We really wanted to draft you, and we just didn’t have the position to draft you’. Just hearing that and seeing where I’m at now, it’s just crazy how that stuff could’ve worked out”.
While Queen has recalled this incident since signing with the Steelers, the end bit is new. Tomlin recently said that it feels like the Steelers drafted Patrick Queen. But now even Queen is saying that he wonders what it would have been like to be drafted a Steeler.
Talking about Donte Jackon and their previous interest before acquiring him this offseason, Tomlin noted that it is a common theme. “Patrick Queen is another one”, the Steelers head coach said on the WDVE Morning Show. “Although it was COVID, we did our work on Pat Queen. We liked Pat Queen a lot”.
The Steelers did not have a first-round pick the year the Ravens drafted Patrick Queen 28th overall. As you might recall, they had sent it to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for S Minkah Fitzpatrick. Had they had the pick, they might have drafted Queen, who did go 10 spots later. Or perhaps they would have drafted Brandon Aiyuk, who went 25th overall. Or better yet, they could have drafted Justin Jefferson, but I digress. Minkah’s pretty good, I guess.
But the Steelers had just used a first-round pick on an inside linebacker a year earlier, trading up for Devin Bush. While his career took a very disappointing turn, Bush at this time was coming off an encouraging rookie season.
In hindsight, I’m sure the Steelers would have much preferred having no first-round pick in 2019 and drafting Patrick Queen in 2020. But they can’t rewrite history; all they can do is work to fix it. They took a step in that direction by signing him as a free agent this offseason. While Queen will have to continue wondering what the past four years would have been like with the Steelers, he can now spend the rest of his career here.
