Pittsburgh Steelers LB Patrick Queen hasn’t made the impact early in the season for the Steelers that some were expecting, but defensive coordinator Teryl Austin has been pleased with what Pittsburgh’s star free agent addition has done through five weeks. Austin said Queen is playing good football and will continue to grow in his role when asked if the Steelers might consider using him differently.
“I’m assuming he’s as good as we’re going to see, and he continues to get better as he gets more comfortable with what we do. But I don’t — I’m not sure where that comes from because I like Patrick Queen. I think he’s playing really good football for us. He is leading us out there. He is running and hitting. He’s doing all the things we thought he would do when we got him,” Austin said via transcript provided by the team.
Queen’s shown some flashes through the first five weeks, but as the player who wears the Green Dot on defense, some of the blame for the poor defensive communication can get put on him. It seems, however, like the issues aren’t as much on him as they are between individual units, with the defensive struggling to figure out their assignment, leading to busted coverages.
But Queen also has struggled a little bit defending the run, and he has just 17 solo tackles through five games. He’s done a good job getting pressure on the quarterback each of the last two weeks, but the Steelers are going to need Queen to be more consistent and work on limiting the opposition’s run game.
He was supposed to be the answer to the team’s issues at middle linebacker, but Queen hasn’t been anything special so far while playing alongside Payton Wilson and Elandon Roberts. As Austin said, as the season progresses, Queen might get more comfortable in his role and ascend to playing at a high level, but he simply hasn’t played like the player who was a second-team All-Pro last season.
Pittsburgh’s defense as a whole has struggled the last two weeks, and while the Steelers kept points off the board with timely turnovers on Sunday night, they allowed 445 yards and it’s a group that needs to play better. They have a golden opportunity for a big game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday with Aidan O’Connell making his first start of the season at quarterback. Hopefully the Steelers’ defense and Queen can get back on track with a big day.
