Patrick

Queen

Queen heads to the Ravens’ biggest rival in the Steelers after a breakout campaign where he tallied 133 tackles, 3.5 sacks and made the Pro Bowl. The deal is worth $41 million and fills a need in the middle of the defense for the Steelers. Queen now gets a chance to lead a defense as he played alongside Roquan Smith for the past two seasons.

“The fifth-year option was something that was more based on business and the salary-cap economics than actually Patrick Queen and his performance and what he does as a player,” DeCosta added. Queen certainly played well last year, but he enters into a walk offseason and the Ravens may not be inclined to offer him a big enough contract to keep him from testing the market if the fifth-year option was too much of an investment. They’ll have a few months to make that stated goal a reality before the 2023 season starts.

Just one day after The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec said Queen could be “a potential trade candidate”, the Ravens further stoked those rumors by declining his fifth-year option. The selection of Clemson linebacker Trenton Simpson with the 86th overall pick, combined with the extension of Roquan Smith has made Queen somewhat expendable heading into 2023. Queen hasn’t fully lived up to the expectations that made him the 28th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, but put together his best year as a professional in 2022. He’ll enter 2023 on a prove-it year, in hopes of earning a long-term extension next offseason.

The Ravens picked Trenton Simpson 86th overall in this year’s draft, just signed Roquan Smith to a huge extension, and have danced around the idea of whether they will pick up Queen’s fifth-year option this offseason. Queen is coming off his best season to date and the Ravens appear to be willing to part with him for the right price, as they offered in Zrebiec’s words “no resolution” on Queen’s status at their post-draft pressers.

Queen had his best season to date, finishing with a 64.6 PFF run defense grade and a 65.5 coverage grade, both career highs. And on the other hand, the Ravens traded for Roquan Smith and gave him $100 million dollars, so Queen will likely never be the No. 1 linebacker in Baltimore. The fact that the Ravens were non-committal indicates that Queen hasn’t done enough for this to be a no-brainer, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t take the extra year of team control.

That’s a great deal better than the injury actually looked on the field, where Queen screamed in pain. We’d handicap Queen as questionable for Week 14 based on this update, but there are still more tests to be done and we’d expect another update on the third-year linebacker Monday or Tuesday. Queen has played 95% of the snaps for Baltimore this year and has 76 tackles, one pick, and four passes defensed.

Queen screamed in pain on the turf after suffering what appeared to be a knee injury before he was carted off. On a day in which the Ravens lost Lamar Jackson to a knee injury, losing Queen is a terrible double whammy for a reeling Baltimore team. Queen is one of the team’s best defensive players.

Queen was one of six players who were close contacts with Marlon Humphrey. The Ravens also activated S DeShon Elliott, LB L.J. Fort, LB Malik Harrison, CB Terrell Bonds, and LB Tyus Bowser from the COVID-19 list.

Elliott is one of seven “close contacts” of COVID-positive Marlon Humphrey who must miss this week’s practices and quarantine. The other six are: LB Matthew Judon, LB Patrick Queen, LB L.J. Fort, LB Malik Harrison, CB Terrell Bonds and LB Tyus Bowser. Presuming they all keep returning negative tests, all seven players will be eligible to suit up for Sunday’s game against the Colts. An every-down player his third year in the league, Elliott has been providing strong snaps at the back end of the Ravens’ defense.

Frelund ranks Queen’s selection at the top, and she rounds out her top five with Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb going to the Cowboys, Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons to the Cardinals, Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy to the Broncos and LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire to the Chiefs. “My “neutral” team model, which ranks players independent of team fit, had Queen as the 16th best player overall,” Freuland writes. “So the Ravens getting him at Pick No. 28 -- especially considering his fit on that roster -- represents the best value in the first round, per my model.” The analyst also points out that Queen has the potential to be even more effective with Baltimore than he was with LSU, as he’ll be going to a team that blitzes often; something he excelled at in Baton Rouge in 2019.