Patrick Queen embracing ‘villain’ role in Steelers-Ravens rivalry: ‘I wasn’t wanted back’

PITTSBURGH — Bodies collided and tempers flared, as then- Baltimore Ravens rookie inside linebacker Patrick Queen got his first taste of the team's bitter rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers .

It was 2020, and Queen didn't take long to make a name for himself in the rough-and-tumble AFC North, beginning in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns when he led the team with eight tackles, recorded his first sack and forced a fumble. The 28th pick in the 2020 draft continued to flash in the division in Week 5, strip-sacking former LSU teammate Joe Burrow and returning a Mike Thomas fumble for a touchdown.

Even though Queen, in many ways, validated Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta's decision to draft him in the first round and eventually earned a spot on the Pro Football Writer Association's All-Rookie team, there's an old adage in Baltimore: You're not a Raven until you beat the Steelers. That season, Queen went 0-2 against the 12-4 Steelers.

During one of those matchups, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin let the new Raven hear about it.

"When I was on their sideline my rookie year, Mike Tomlin was looking at me, yelling at me, 'You're not a Raven. You're not a Raven. You're not supposed to be there. You're not one of them,'" Queen remembered last October ahead of a Steelers-Ravens matchup. "I don't care if he was joking. I don't care if he was serious. At the end of the day, I'm on your sideline, and you're telling me I'm not a Raven. That's kind of disrespectful."

Now, as the 7-2 Steelers and 7-3 Ravens prepare to renew one of the NFL 's best rivalries with the division lead on the line, Queen finds himself on the other side of that trash-talking.

A Raven no more, Queen joined the Steelers this offseason when general manager Omar Khan signed the fierce and physical inside linebacker to a three-year, $41 million deal, making him the highest-paid outside free agent in team history. During his introductory news conference, Queen somewhat ironically credited Tomlin for being his main inspiration in switching sides.

"I think that (exchange in 2020) was a hint," Queen said. "Even though I wanted to come fight him then and there, that was a hint at the time."

To the Steelers, Queen is many things. At a position group that's been a revolving door since Ryan Shazier sustained his career-ending injury, Queen is the long-term solution. He's the do-everything, all-purpose linebacker who has played 100 percent of the defensive snaps. Tomlin calls him the quarterback of the defense, the green-dot communication hub counted upon to relay all the calls across the defense.

But to the Ravens, he'll be something different in black and gold.

"It's going to be weird," Queen said shortly after he signed with the Steelers. "But I want to be that villain. ... I hate that I got to be that way, but it is what it is. I'm where I want to be, where I'm happy. I'm where I am wanted."

In a rivalry full of hard hits and choice words, linebackers like James Harrison, Ray Lewis and T.J. Watt are often the ones pouring gasoline on the fire. Initially, it looked like Queen would be yet another in that mold, playing the villain in purple and black. However, several personnel decisions began to pave the way for a separation.

During the 2022 season, the Ravens pulled off a blockbuster trade, giving up second- and fifth-round picks in exchange for former Chicago Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith . The deal shored up the position, giving Baltimore one of the league's best tandems.

But that January, the Ravens began to pivot. They inked Smith to a five-year, $100 million deal that made him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. Then as the offseason rolled around, the organization decided not to pick up Queen's fifth-year option and instead drafted his eventual successor, Trenton Simpson , a Clemson linebacker in a similar mold as a fast, fearless player with sideline-to-sideline range.

Knowing 2023 might be his last year in Baltimore, Queen enjoyed his best season in the NFL. With Smith next to him and Simpson behind him on the depth chart, Queen racked up a career-high 133 tackles (nine for loss), six pass breakups, an interception, a forced fumble and 3.5 sacks. Many of the inconsistencies in his game disappeared, as he was honored with his first Pro Bowl nod.

However, for a Ravens team with Super Bowl aspirations, it wasn't logical to commit too much salary-cap space to one position group. The writing was on the wall the minute they swung big to acquire Smith. DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh decided to move on without offering Queen a possible contract extension. Queen said Wednesday he hasn't talked with the coach or the GM since the end of the season.

"I wasn't wanted back," Queen said. "I didn't get the offer back. It was definitely kind of upsetting, you know, being there for four years and the bond that you grow with your teammates and stuff.

"The first few months, you definitely go through those feelings. Now, after playing in games, you just go by, you just want to win games with your new teammates. You want to bond with those guys. Everything you do is for the organization that you're in now."

Queen said it took a couple of months for the bitter taste to dissipate. He prayed on it and said that he's now focused on his current situation.

"Even though I signed and stuff, I was still having those feelings," Queen said. "Knowing that a long four years, you spent blood, sweat and tears over there. ... You put your body on the line every single time that you go went out there, even when you can barely move your leg or whatever the injury may have been. You just go out and do the best for your team. So I definitely did feel a certain type of way after the whole situation. But I'm over it now."

While it would be hard to find a former Ravens teammate or coach who would say a bad word about Queen — a soft-spoken, introspective person off the field and menace on it — the new Steelers linebacker was scrolling social media shortly after he signed his free-agent deal in Pittsburgh and saw former teammate Marlon Humphrey chirping him, suggesting the grass might not be greener in Pittsburgh.

"Marlon had just texted me two days before that," Queen said. "We were just talking. He was like, 'Hey, can you keep a secret?' What he told me, I just ain't gonna tell nobody. But he ended up posting that like two days later. So I was like, bro, you were literally just texting me."

Queen considered posting screenshots of the messages to prove a point. But his loyalty to a friend outweighed his desire to win an online argument. He ultimately came up with a better, more creative idea.

"I was like, you know what, I'm going to go out and water my own grass," Queen said.

Queen responded with a video of his own, where he stood outside his new home in Pittsburgh watering the grass while sipping a glass of white wine. That trash-talking mentality is ingrained in Queen — and has only grown as he's become more established in the league.

"You just gotta know what gets under people's skin," Queen said a few weeks back. "You can't just curse everybody out or low blow them. You gotta know them, and you've got to know how to get under their skin."

Queen also showed his boisterous on-field persona often during training camp, including during a spirited back-on-backers drill at Latrobe Memorial Stadium when he got into a shouting match with Steelers running back Najee Harris .

"That's me and Najee, going back to the Bama-LSU hatred," Queen said. "Those are some deep roots there. But it's just competitive. It's all respect."

When it came time to finally put on the black and gold for the first time in a real game, Queen began his Steelers tenure quietly with a two-tackle performance against the Atlanta Falcons . It took until Week 4 in Indianapolis for him to record his first tackle for loss and QB hit. As Queen went back and watched film, he was self-critical in several instances. Even as recently as Wednesday, he was kicking himself for missing a tackle on a checkdown to Jets running back Breece Hall , coming up short on a sideline attempt to bring down Atlanta ball carrier Bijan Robinson and dropping an interception against the Chargers .

"There's plays here and there I should have made," Queen said. "It wasn't a lot of plays. Just four or five plays. Eliminate those and it's a whole different discussion right now. I just had to get back to myself, just sit myself down and just understand who I am and how good I can be."

The more time Queen has spent in the defense, the more comfortable he has become. He flashed in a major way in Week 6, tallying a season-high 13 tackles in a win over the Las Vegas Raiders . Then, on Sunday in Washington, Queen turned in one of his best performances as a Steeler, logging a season-high two tackles for loss and matching his season-high with six solo tackles. His sideline-to-sideline speed was evident in many instances as he chased down the electric Jayden Daniels .

At the same time, his feisty demeanor continues to manifest. At one point in Sunday's game, Commanders tight end John Bates tried to take down Queen. Instead, the Steelers linebacker grabbed him by the arm and threw him to the turf. Bates later called Queen "dirty," a comment the Steelers linebacker rebutted on social media, saying, "Tried to dump me so I dumped him. If he still mad I ain't hard to find."

That speedy, physicality and eagerness to talk trash should all be evident on Sunday against Lamar Jackson and Queen's former Ravens teammates.

"The older you get, the less stuff that you take," Queen said. "Just the whole extra stuff that be going on ... it just came with my game. The older I got, the more I did it. It's just who I am now. I can't control it. I can't take it back. It's just me."

He admits that it will be odd to be on the other side of the storied rivalry, but at the same time, he's trying to keep it all in perspective.

"I do have feelings about it," Queen said. "At the same time, it's another game. It's an AFC North game. At the end of the day, anybody in my position would have the same feelings about it. I'm not going to make it anything more than what it is. I'm going to go out there and try to help my team win any way that I can."

(Photo: Patrick Smith / )