Will Queen be here next year?

The bottom line is that Queen's contract is up after this season. And they paid him his roster bonus. He will play out his contract, Unfortunately.

Benton is the whipping boy and had his best season so far in 2025. No one wants to give some shade to Heyward. He is on that D Line as well. Everyone loves him chasing the running back 30 yards down the field after the point of attack has been shredded. Funny how when Harmen came back in after his injury the point of attack got better.

 

Yeah, it was real bad. He got washed out so badly against Buffalo that we gave up a million yards to the same play over and over again, and then his snaps got instantly cut in half... not good.

I am not sure that the team feels that way about its competitive window. I think we understand that we aren't likely SB contenders next year, but I do think they believe this team is a playoff contender that has a shot at winning a playoff game. I don't think that we're just going to sell him off for nothing when we don't have a contingency plan on the roster. We 100% will be adding another ILB in the first two days of the draft anyways... but I just don't see a scenario where this team gets any better (long or short term) by selling off Queen.

He has more value to the team because he is one of the few leaders on a team that needs it. We don't have a ton of vocal leadership here, and his voice is one that has been here since he signed. His play is too inconsistent for him to be worth the money we paid him... but he is also nowhere near as bad as some on the board think he is.

Maybe the dot has something to do with it, but personally, I think it has a lot to do with having terrible ILB play next to him. He gets left out to dry quite often due to poor play beside him. Now, not all of it is on that.. the missed tackles need to improve. But, its easier to look good with Roquan Smith next to you than it is Elandon Roberts, Payton Wilson, or Malik Harrison. Our second ILB play has been so abysmal that it probably hinders his play.

I can agree that another part of it is likely due to an antiquated defensive scheme that asks too much of its ILB's. It seems that almost all of our ILB's not named Shazier since LeBeau left have struggled immensely, and its because he was the only player good (and athletically gifted) enough to handle all the responsibilities. I am not shocked that Queen has bad pass defense stats when in the final regular season game he is asked to carry the opposing teams #1 receiver 40 yards down the seam. It's just indefensible to put the player in that situation, and we can't even blame him for that failure. That was a schematic failure. Baltimore isn't letting Roquan Smith carry DK Metcalf up the field in any situation... There isn't a single player that stands to gain more on this team from Tomlin and Austin's departure than Queen. I would imagine a newer scheme that sets out to play to it's players strengths will see Queen's level of play spike positively. Hopefully massively so.