Will Queen be here next year?

Steelers save $8 million in 2026 Cap money if they extended him. I see the Steelers Giving him a new 2-year extension this off season.

I don't think Payton Wilson is ready to take over just yet.

 

Depending on our draft possibilities at ILB, he has not lived up to his
contract. Wilson has disappointed this year. A new DC could change my thinking.
We can't keep getting gashed by opposing teams running the ball.

 

Queen has flashes, then the bulb turns dim. I do feel he will finish his contract here up after 2026. I hope they don't not extend him.

 

I'm fine if we want to let him go, but we have to have a real plan. If our plan is to draft a guy and start Wilson next to him... then we're just playing with fire. We run the risk of having the worst ILB room in the league. Any draft pick (even a first round pick) isn't necessarily going to come into the league better than a guy like Queen, even if that player ends up much better than Queen in the long run. Even Shazier struggled a bit then dealt with injuries his rookie year before breaking out. We risk having a terrible ILB room if we drop Queen. A plan that falls short of drafting Styles/Hill and signs Quay Walker in FA probably makes the team worse for a prize of... money. Our ILB room certainly needs to be better, but I am not sure how cutting our only starting caliber player at the position achieves that goal.

So getting someone like Quay Walker with that 13 million plus what? How does this make our team better? We take on dead cap to replace Queen with Quay (lateral-ish move), and then what? Personally I'd rather just let Queen play out and fix the room on the go. Or extend Queen at a lower number (more in line with the 10-12 million a year he is worth instead of 17m) and then get a dawg to play beside him. Part of the issue with Queen is all that he is asked to do. He is the green dot, plus defensive vocal leader, plus has to be the top dog in the run and the pass. Our other ILB's shortcomings (along with some injuries on the DL) have made his job a LOT harder than it could be. If we pair him with a viable starting ILB, his play should improve...

 

I think we are around 40 million in space. That isn't taking into account pretty easy cuts of Jonnu Smith and Malik Harrison to get us another 12ish million. We also have the option to sign Cam Heyward, Jalen Ramsey, Queen, and Boswell to extensions that lower cap hits. We also have DK, TJ, Highsmith, etc. to look at for restructuring. We shouldn't have a huge problem finding money to make a couple signings. We won't be throwing 30+ million on other contracts, but targeting someone like Quay Walker at ILB (somewhere in the 10m range), Doubs/Shaheed/Robinson at WR (somewhere in the 12-15m range), and/or Tariq Woolen at CB (somewhere in the 12-15m range) makes a lot of sense. We'd still need to put money towards Rodgers (assuming he wants to run it back), Gainwell, and likely a short contract for Seumalo (this should easily be under 20million in 2026 cap hit). Killebrew, Connor Heyward, Otomewo, and Dugger could be other options too.

We are in a pretty solid spot cap wise (Khan does a great job with this). I have faith that we will put together a solid roster of guys. My biggest priority is an overhaul at the WR position. We need talent there.

 

I believe he just needs more time.

 

I hope you're right.

I also think it's because he plays the same role as Queen and isn't as good as him (yet). If Queen went down (of if we let him go in the offseason), I think Wilson would play all of his snaps.

My guess is that the team won't cut Queen. But won't extend him either.

With the plan to let Queen play out his contract and have Wilson take his spot.

When I started this post, I was going to say I wouldn't be surprised if we spend one of our 3rds on an ILB to get a longer term answer for our more stout ILB too. But Harrison's only 27 and is under contract for next year. So we could wait until next year too. But I still wouldn't be surprised if we use one of the many picks we have to look long term at ILB.

 

Top 100 cuts; Queen at #73 (and Harrison at #45):

2026 Top 100 Possible Cut Candidates | Over the Cap