Will Queen be here next year?

Queen has drawn my irk in coverage. He is target #1 for opposing offenses. in coverage. Just throw in his way on anyone he is covering... His run D is hit or miss. The trouble is his vision / instincts are average, and as you said he misses way too many tackles.

By cutting him we save $ 13.3 million on the cap in 2026. IMO, this is one of the first off season moves we do. So what if we have to eat 3.8M in dead cap money.

 

How did that work out for them. Lots of playoff wins, and SBs they have accrued since letting him go??
Sometimes you have to let people go because You can't pay everyone, and L. Jackson's cap hit is going through the roof this coming season, as they knew it would. Look at their D since He's left them.
I don't think he's awesome but he's way better than some try saying.

 

Unless we have a really good option to replace him, this is idiotic imo. Our ILB room is Queen and zero starting caliber other players.... We need to make the room better, not worse... and simply cutting him for money doesn't make us better unless we draft an ILB in round 1 AND sign a player like Quay Walker to replace him... I would be more interested in lowering Queen's cap hit with an extension (something closer to 10-12m a year than 17m) and then finding a real ILB to play beside him. Queen has had to be EVERYTHING at defense this year up the middle because Wilson is a liability in the run game and Harrison just... sucks.

I know he hasn't been worth his cap hit, but he is still a quality player. Queen is far from what is wrong with our defense. With us needing to find real answers other places (namely CB2, WR2, NT) I think we can ill afford to make this type of move (nor do I think the team will entertain it).

 

Agree on the first part, but not the second.

 

There has been an abundance of runs 5+ yards runs and passes in the middle of our defense where Queen is playing.

I'll take say Robinson at 1/4 the cap number or a veteran free agent ( I find one with the 13.3M when Queen is cut. ) Or perhaps a rookie player.

I am not saying Queen is not the better 2 down player. I'm saying he is a cap killer / extremely overpaid . The Steelers need a good cap man as they spend the most on defense in the NFL and get mediocre results. Queen is part of that problem.

Look-- Queen is 61st in the NFL in solo tackles. He isn't a splash player and as mentioned in this thread is victimized in missed tackles. He is not a sack guy, not an interception guy, and a bad player on passing downs.

 

I think we'll let him play out his contract.

He's been better this year than last year.

And I don't think we'll go into next season without an ILB who can call the D that we trust to play against the Rats. I think it's crazy that don't trust Wilson to play against the Ravens (that playing Malik over Wilson is silly).

 

Well -- Queen had special motivation vs. his former team Too bad we don't play the Ravens more than twice a year because Queen knows them all to well, and has an ax to grind against them.

I agree, plaing Malik over Wilson is crazy, but hust look at who is in charge of this team.

 

I think Harrison over Wilson vs the Ravens was situational. The Steelers wanted a heavier hitter against Henry. And you can't argue the results, especially in the second half.

 

I agree that the 2nd half was very good.

I just worry what it means for Wilson. We already seem to have given up on Roman. Hopefully Payton pans out.

If we did cut Queen, it would be Wilson who take on his role. I think the fact that we were only willing to put Wilson on the field for 11 snaps (21.6%) against the Ravens suggests to me that we won't be willing to have him take over for Queen next season.

In the last 5 games, Queen's %age of Defensive snaps are: 40.0, 42.0 70.3 44.2 21.6.

Harrison's are: 18.8 58.0 21.6 50.0 70.6.

I don't think it's encouraging that the guy I think of as the scrub cast-off is out snapping the guy I'm hoping is the future of the ILB room. Especially in these games where we have to win.

We've heard a lot about the correlation between Harmon playing and success stopping the run. I wonder how well it correlates with Harrison out-snapping Wilson?

 

i saw queen went to hug TJ after the game but missed.

 

It shows you what they think of Wilson's run defense.

 

Yet they swept the Ravens and won the division go figure .

 

It's subjective for sure. The Depot has Queen at 27.

 

I think this goes to the fact that Wilson is a speed ILB as well just like Queen, if Queen is out of position that places Wilson in a bad spot to cover him. The same is true if Wilson were out of position and Queen has to cover. The problem is what happens when they are both out of position? Thats were coaching has to come in and well we know that we dont have the best staff to not only identify this issue but also be able to coach it up and correct it. Defense works when all 11 men do their job and know what the other guy is going to do. Chaos ensues when everyone is trying to be the hero. Ever watch a 5 year old T-ball game?

 

Agreed! And the Steelers aren't in a bad situation cap wise, right? If the Queen contract is limiting the Steelers in some capacity than I could get entertaining the idea, but it just doesn't make sense to make that move at this point.

 

I hear what you are saying. Still think it was situational. In the CHI and BUF games Harrison and Wilson were almost even in snaps. Wilson played a lot more in the 1st BAL game (Henry goes off), then Harrison played slightly more against MIA (fear of Achane), followed by Wilson playing 70% against DET (fear of Goff).

 

Agree on coaching. Just look at what Bush did in CLE this year; career high tackles, 14 TFLs (one shy of his rookie season), career high QB pressures.

 

I agree with you that the reason they are doing it is because they don't trust Wilson against the run. But I think that's a bad sign.

Hopefully, it's more like they don't trust Wilson+Queen against the run. And that if Queen leaves (or gets cut), they'd put Wilson in that role and he'd be OK. But they don't want two light / fast ILBs at the same time.

 

with wilson only playing 40 plus percent of the snaps and still leading the team in tackles i'm not sure why there is no trust in him. the kid is only in his 2nd year as well. never has been a full time starter. there is no way he should even be close to queen in tackles let alone leading him. pass the dot and save the money. draft another. harrison at times is brutal to watch as well.

 

Wilson is getting all the tackles that Queen is missing....

 

This, plus let's not let one season override the facts of his last season in the same Cleveland team, in Seattle, and in Pittsburgh .
If he strings 3 seasons like this I will be more able to believe, but one season doesn't make a career.

 

I think this was also the problem with Dotson (who had flashes of very good play with us but sucked at avoiding pre-snap penalties). Needed to get given up on to realize that he wasn't guaranteed anything in the league. And that he had to work to be good.

 

I think this is because he's very fast...not "just for an ILB".

I don't have the data, but I wonder if the issue is where these tackles are taking place (i.e. too far downfield).

I really hope that he can be our next great ILB.