Steelers LB named player with most to prove in 2025

The Steelers’ star needs to have a strong season in 2025

The Pittsburgh Steelers made several splashes in 2024, one of the most notable being paying big money for Baltimore Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen.

The LSU product was given the largest external free agent contract in franchise history, signing a three-year, $41 million deal with the Steelers. However, the results weren’t instant. Queen got off to a slow start, his worst performance early in the season coming against the Indianapolis Colts in a Week 4 loss. And while he would bounce back, there were still games where he didn’t live up to what the Steelers needed him to be.

Because of that, PFF named Queen as one of their 10 players with the most to prove in 2025.

“Following a slow start to his career in Baltimore, Queen started playing like one of the better linebackers in the league following the Ravens‘ trade for Roquan Smith in 2022,” Zoltan Buday writes. “He wasn’t able to crack the top 70 among linebackers in PFF overall grade in either of his first two NFL seasons but placed 31st with a 69.7 PFF overall grade in 2022. Queen played at an even higher level in Smith’s first full season in Baltimore, posting a 24th-ranked 73.0 PFF overall grade. The improvement in play earned Queen a hefty contract in Pittsburgh during the 2024 offseason, but the former first-round pick earned only a 56.8 PFF overall grade this past season, which ranked 65th among 84 qualifying linebackers. The Steelers will look for Queen to return to form in 2025.”

This isn’t to say Queen was horrible in 2024 – he certainly wasn’t. He still finished the year with 129 tackles and made several splash plays in big moments, i.e. his forced fumble and recovery against the Ravens in the first matchup that helped lead the Steelers to a win at home.

With that in mind, the Steelers need more of that and need him to be a more consistent stone wall in the middle of the field in order for their defense to reach its full potential.