Will Queen be here next year?

Queen has been disappointing, to say the least, and he will be overpaid, but the other options are not good. All of the top available free agent inside linebackers signed elsewhere yesterday. They have the cap room to keep him, so it simply isn't worth moving him for a fifth-round pick.

 

And Dallas coaching which we now have.

All three were factors.

 

TRADE Him! He next number on the Steelers will be 86'd!

 

Maybe, but it's not like he wasn't productive despite the poor quarterback play and lack of a quality receiver opposite him in Pittsburgh.

 

That is accurate.

 

Trade him while you can and draft rodriguez in the second , if the eagles give us a fourth ...

 

Let’s see what the new DC does with him.

Unless someone is willing to overpay.

 

Doing something with Queen now feels, idk somewhat notional? Like there's not a cap crunch. It's the last year of his contract. Probably better to have him than not if you're not solving for a cap crunch.

I'd also like to see what a new staff can do with the ILBs. Apart from Vince Williams and like a year of Devin Bush, the play there has been generally poor since we had Timmons and Shazier there. Hard to believe every singe ILB has sucked over that time.

 

Worth noting, Spillane, who I often hear as evidence of the Steelers' player development failures, found his footing as a starter in the league under Patrick Graham.

 

Chenal just signed with the Commanders, and it's looking as though the Steelers want to keep Queen.
Looks like we're moving on with inconsistency in the middle of our D.

 

Queen playing the blame game, and he could be right....maybe. But It doesn't explain the missed tackles;

https://steelersdepot.com/2026/03/h...rence-that-makes-pittsburghs-scheme-so-tough/

 

The quotes from Queen are hilarious.

one way to read it is the scheme was broken. Another valid way too read it is that it makes Queen’s brain hurt because he has to think.

truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

 

His best season with the Ravens was when he was paired with Smith and Smith wore the green dot and it allowed Queen to just play without thinking or being responsible for anyone other than himself. This of course doesn't account for the number of times he guessed the wrong gap on running plays and put himself into a block.

 

I have always assumed that Baltimore left Queen go because he is kinda dumb. Steelers paid him hoping he wasn't and it just took some time for him to put it together.

I have no idea...but the available circumstantial evidence all points to Queen only really being as successful as possible when the only thing he has to think about is to hit the ballcarrier.

 

So basically he’s saying it was to complicated for him

After his first team it was pointed out he didn’t know what he was doing

The problem is not the defense

You don’t dumb down an entire defense for one player

 

You do when he is wearing the green dot....MisCOMmUNIcAtIOnS.

 

Hard for some to understand this. People like to say , well use the players to their best advantage, that's all fine, and dandy if it is at the expense of the rest of the team, and play.

 

This is my thought process.


If anything, should Jacob be gone, Anthony Hill, if he is still somehow on the board, wouldn't be too bad of a consolation prize. Would have to bring him a bit more slowly than Jacob though.

 

Got an insider image of the LBer meeting room:

 

Likely won’t get much for Queen pre-draft Every team is figuring they can just draft a younger and cheaper option.

 

I like Queen but I admit his dead cap would only be $6 million and would save $10 million in salary

 

On one board, they were predicting the Steelers wouldn't draft an ILB if they keep Queen.
But since Queen is on the last year of his contract, it might be the right time to try to draft their their next long-term ILB.

Timmons didn't become the full time starter until his 3rd season.
Shazier only had 5 starts in his rookie year (injuries resulted him being game-inactive for 7 games and playing < 50% of defensive snaps for 7 other games).
Williams had 11 starts his rookie year, but only averaged 40% of the defensive snaps. And then only 6 starts in his next 3 years.