For four seasons, linebacker Patrick Queen was a critical piece of Baltimore’s defense.
He started every game after the Ravens selected him at No. 28 overall in 2020, playing nearly every defensive snap for the club in 2022 and 2023.
But the Ravens declined Queen’s fifth-year option and then opted to let him walk in free agency.
So, Queen signed a three-year contract with the Steelers, staying in the AFC North. He’ll have his first chance to play against Baltimore on Sunday and is expecting to feel some emotion based on the way his tenure with the franchise ended.
“I wasn’t offered to go back. I don’t know if I said that or not, put that in public or not,” Queen said Wednesday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “I wasn’t wanted back. I didn’t get the offer back. It was definitely kind of upsetting, being there for four years and the bond that you grow with your teammates and stuff. But at the end of the day, like I said, the first few months, you definitely go through those feelings. And now, after playing games, you just go by — you want to win games. You want to win with your teammates, your new teammates, you want to bond with those guys. Everything that you do is this organization that you’re in now.
“I will have feelings, obviously. Anybody in my position would this week. So, I’m just taking it one day at a time, and whatever happens, happens.”
How will he channel those feelings?
“Just, I don’t know, self-control,” Queen said. “Prayed about it a little bit. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I think the outside picture makes it bigger than what it is. I think for me personally, it’s just, like any situation like anybody that would be in my shoes, they would feel a certain way. But I don’t think it has to be anything more, anything extra.”
Queen noted he “never had a conversation” with head coach John Harbaugh or General Manager Eric DeCosta regarding free agency or his departure. And it took the linebacker until late August or early September to really get over how he initially felt about not being wanted by the organization that drafted him.
“Even though I signed, you obviously still go through those feelings and stuff,” Queen said. “Just knowing that [it was] a long four years that you put in blood, sweat, and tears over there. And the guys that you bonded with, developed close relationships with — even the training staff to the strength staff, everybody that you built a relationship with, you put your body on the line every single time that you went out there, even when you could barely move your leg, or whatever the injury may have been. Just go out there and try to do your best for that team.
“So, I definitely did feel a certain type of way after the whole situation. But I’m over it now.”
In nine games with Pittsburgh this year, Queen has registered 62 total tackles with four for loss and three passes defensed.
