PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen revealed the Baltimore Ravens didn’t offer him a contract when he hit free agency earlier this year.
Queen, who signed a three-year, $41 million deal with the Steelers in March, was selected by the Ravens in the first round of the 2020 draft.
Baltimore declined Queen’s fifth-year option last year and opted instead to sign fellow linebacker Roquan Smith to a monster five-year, $100 million contract. When given another opportunity to retain Queen after his Pro Bowl 2023 season, the Ravens passed again.
“I wasn’t wanted back,” Queen said Wednesday, four days before his first meeting against his former team. “I didn’t get the offer back, and it is definitely kind upsetting 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 games, you just go by and just want to win games. You want to win with your teammates, your new teammates, you want to bond with those guys. Everything that you do as far as the organization that you’re at now. I will have feelings. Obviously anybody in my position would this week, so I’m just take one day at a time, whatever happens, happens.”
Queen said he hasn’t spoken to Ravens coach John Harbaugh or general manager Eric DeCosta since signing in Pittsburgh, but he still keeps in touch with other Ravens teammates — although maybe a little less this week.
“The only person I talked to is Roquan,” Queen said. “I talked to him last week just so we could talk early in the week because we know we’ll both be locked in. Probably not going to get any messages from anybody this week.”
After a quiet start to his Steelers career, Queen has been a significant factor in Pittsburgh’s recent victories against the New York Giants and Washington Commanders. In Washington, Queen led the Steelers with seven tackles and two run stuffs. Prior to the bye, Queen recorded eight tackles against the Giants and had one quarterback pressure.
“I just had to look in the mirror and just say I had to get back to myself,” Queen said. “I’ve been getting better these last few weeks. I just got to raise that standard.”
At his introductory Pittsburgh press conference in March, Queen expressed excitement about being the next “villain” in the storied Steelers-Ravens rivalry — and about being somewhere that wanted him.
And though Queen expressed that optimism and readiness to be a Steeler publicly at the time, he said Wednesday it took him months to process his feelings about not being wanted by the organization that drafted him.
“Probably ’til the end of August, early September,” Queen said of how long it took to work through his emotions. “Even though I signed and stuff, you obviously still go through those feelings. Just knowing that a long four years that you put in blood, sweat and tears over there. The guys that you bonded with build close relationships with even the training staff to the strength staff, everybody that you built a relationship with.
“You put your body on the line every single time that you went out there, even when you could barely even move your leg or whatever the injury it may have been. Just go out there and try to do your best for that team. I definitely did feel a type of way after the whole situation, but I’m over it now.”
To positively channel the emotions into his game, Queen said he prayed, and he doesn’t anticipate bringing “anything extra” to Sunday’s pivotal meeting.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Queen said. “I think the outside picture makes it bigger than what it is. For me personally, it is just like any situation that anybody that would be in my shoes, they would feel a certain way, but I don’t think it had to be anything more, anything extra.”
One thing Queen said he’s looking forward to Sunday is the opportunity to go against former teammate Lamar Jackson. His only experience previously against Jackson was in practice, but the rules were a little different then.
“He wants to win,” Queen said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to win, and he knows what it takes. So just from my perspective, just going against him, just being able not to tackle him in practice, finally get a chance to actually tackle him. That should be fun. He’s just a great competitor, he’s a great athlete. He can do whatever he wants on the field as we all know. So for me it’s just going against the best.”