Patrick Queen Lands at No. 64 on NFL Top 100 List
Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Patrick Queen landed at No. 64 on the NFL Network’s annual Top 100 Players list. It’s Queen’s first time making the NFL Top 100, which is voted on by the players.
Queen joins defensive tackle Cam Heyward (No. 98) and free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (No. 79) as the third Steelers player to be named on the countdown.
In 2023, Queen played in all 17 games with the Baltimore Ravens, racking up 133 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, six quarterback hits, six passes defended, one interception and one forced fumble. He was named a second-team All-Pro and was selected to the AFC Pro Bowl squad, his first career honor in each category.
The Steelers gave Queen the largest free-agent deal in franchise history by almost $5 million annually this offseason. The previous record was held by right guard James Daniels, who averages $8.83 million per year. Queen will average $13.66 million on his three-year, $41 million deal.
With the lucrative contract, the expectations for Queen with the Steelers are considerably high. They expect him to be a sideline-to-sideline linebacker, similar to how Ryan Shazier was several years ago.
Queen, who stands at 6-foot, 230-pounds, does not have the size of typical Steelers players at the position, but he makes up for it with blistering speed. Queen ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash and posted a 10-foot-5 broad jump at the 2020 NFL Combine.
According to NextGen Stats, Queen led all linebackers with 20 quick pressures in 2023, even though he was blitzing at just the 23rd-highest rate among linebackers (min. 500 snaps). Queen also generated a 25.5% pressure rate in 2023, the sixth-highest among linebackers (min. 50 pass rushes).
Queen is expected the green-dot communicator for the defense, as he was in Baltimore.
“He’s an all situations linebacker, and so that’s exciting,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said about Queen. “He’s a guy that’s a three-down player. He’s a guy that can do a lot of things, can tackle, can cover, can blitz and he’s 24 and a half years old, so he’s got that great combination of youth and experience and I think those are some of the reasons why we are really excited about bringing him on board and can’t tell you how exciting it is just because of the familiarity, as well. We’ve seen a lot of him, he’s seen a lot of us and it’s going to be an exciting marriage.”
Steelers All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt is encouraged by what he’s seen from Queen thus far. He believes Queen is as advertised.
“(He is) fast, very fast, quick,” Watt said on report day at Saint Vincent College. “Just to be able to have speed like that on the defensive side of the ball, sideline to sideline as an inside linebacker, is a huge asset. And then to be able to have a guy who can wear the green dot and be really well in communication, that’s what we’re here for.”
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