Patrick Queen’s Case for Most Improved Raven

It’s incredibly unfair, the bar that is set for young middle linebackers to try to make their name in Baltimore.

That’s not to say that Patrick Queen was given a raw deal. He wasn’t. There is a certain expectation of every first-round draft pick and Queen, wasn’t meeting it. 2020 was a crazy year. His first action in the NFL came in games that counted. COVID-19 led to limited offseason activities and zero preseason games. I was willing to give his poor rookie year a pass because he was a rookie, and the weird circumstances. Most rookies spend the offseason training for a combine, and not the rigors of a 16 (now 17) game season. Some get the luxury of being eased in. For Queen it was trial by fire.

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Queen hinted during his sophomore training camp that he wasn’t fully grasping defensive coordinator Don Martindale’s system. But that newly acquired linebackers coach, Rob Ryan, was able to simplify things for him. There was a feeling he would play with more confidence, less getting caught in the wash because he had been trying to process what to do, and not just playing. In the preseason, it looked like he turned the corner.

Once again, it was proven that preseason means absolutely nothing. Vanilla defenses, vanilla offenses, easy to see why Queen looked like an All-Pro out there. Busting up screen plays. A few run stops behind the line of scrimmage.

When the real games started, he was back to looking like a rookie who hadn’t progressed.

Weeks 1-5 snap percentages: 84%, 100%, 98%, 93%, 72%

But that has changed ever since week 6. In the Ravens win over the L.A. Chargers that week, Queen suffered an injury early on, and he was in and out of the game for the duration of the afternoon. Veteran Josh Bynes took his spot. When Queen returned, it was weakside backer Malik Harrison whose spot he took. Bynes has remained in the “Mike” position ever since.

Week 6 snap percentage: 34%

The strong side middle linebacker in the 3-4 has different responsibilities. Even though safety Chuck Clark wears the green dot (communications with the coaches), where Queen was playing, he was expected to alert his teammates to a change if the offense shifted, or if someone goes in motion and it changes the responsibilities of the defenders. They also are tasked with covering the tight end side. That means they cover them more often in routes, and they need to shed their blocks to stop running plays from reaching the second level. In Queen’s case it meant getting blocked out of view on the television screen at times.

For someone not appearing to fully understand the defense he plays in, it wasn’t the right fit to task him with so much pre-snap reading and communicating. How much got relayed? It needs to be second nature. A good coach once told me, “It has to be important before it happens.” Meaning, you must make every rep in practice incredibly important. Studying your job needs to be incredibly important. If you wait until the game for it to be important, your screwed.

And part of this is an indictment on the defensive coaching staff for putting someone who doesn’t quite get it, in a position on gamedays where it’s important that he gets it.

Queen has since moved to the weak side. With Bynes, a veteran, calling out the adjustments, Queen’s job involves listening for an alert, not directing one. On the side opposite the tight end, he is less likely to get blocked out of a play. Queen’s athleticism is what attracted the Ravens to draft him off a National Championship defense at LSU. With the athleticism, and less thinking, instincts can take over and he can just seek out the ball carrier.

Brian Billick gave a terrific breakdown of Queen’s impact in the win over the Browns. At the 01:33 mark, you can see exactly what I’m talking about. 1^st and 10 for the Browns from their own 33. Queen is lined up on the weak side (his right). Browns send tight end Austin Hooper in motion to Queen’s side, and Bynes alerts Queen to switch places with him. Now Bynes is back on the strong side. It looks like a counter run coming back to the weak side, but whereas Bynes has to now account for Hooper, and is taken out of the play if this is a run, Queen isn’t blocked, and can hunt for the ball. His instincts, or what the Browns may have put on film already, begin to kick in, and he picks up that it isn’t a counter run as a second tight end, Harrison Bryant, is sneaking out to the flat for a pass. At that point athleticism takes over and Queen’s speed allows him to easily close the space on Bryant, and he makes an open field tackle for no gain, maybe a small loss. 2^nd and long coming up.

Week 7-12 snap percentage: 43%, (bye), 67%, 52%, 75%, 63%

His snap percentage may have gone down, but his production, and the defenses save for the breakdowns in the secondary, has shot way up. Better late than never making this move.

Weeks 1-6: 10 missed tackles, 14 run stops, three tackles for loss, 24 targets, 19 catches allowed. PFF Grade – 30.3 (Poor, 86^th out of 89 ILBs)

Weeks 7-12: Two missed tackles, 10 run stops, six tackles for loss, 10 targets, five catches allowed. PFF Grade – 66.7 (Above average, 23^rd out of 91 ILBs).

Remember that unfair bar I mentioned? Bart Scott was once Ray Lewis’ weak side linebacker. A job he excelled at, and when he went with Rex Ryan to the Jets in 2009, he remained their weak side linebacker as well. Pro Football Focus grades begin in 2006. Catching only Scott’s last three years in Baltimore, and his four in the Meadowlands. In that time, he averaged a grade of 71.9.

Grades are not the end all be all of course. If they have indeed found the perfect fit for Queen as a weak side linebacker, and he continues trending up, asking him to be Ray Lewis is unfair. But I’ll take another Bart Scott anytime.

If you’re wondering, Ray Lewis’ PFF grade from 2006-2012 averaged 80.2. If you leave out 2012 where he was out with a torn bicep for a significant stretch of the season and graded 48.2, he averaged 85.5 over a six-year stretch. Not even his best six-year stretch, I would bet.