In Pittsburgh Steelers fashion, the team made some dramatic moves this offseason. While the front office may disagree, this team has needed to embrace a full-scale rebuild for quite some time, but that brutal reality is clearly not in the face of General Manager Omar Khan, who again displayed an all-in mindset this offseason.
Pittsburgh not only replaced Mike Tomlin with Mike McCarthy, but they brought back Aaron Rodgers, swung a trade for Michael Pittman Jr., and added new faces like Germie Bernard, Rico Dowdle, Jaquan Brisker, and Jamel Dean.
The roster appears to be capable on paper, but could the Steelers make a rather major offseason cut that would impact the heart of the defense?
Pittsburgh Steelers LB Patrick Queen labeled as a cut candidate for the 2026 season
It's unfortunately not a stretch to think that Patrick Queen could get cut this offseason, and Alex Kay lays out the argument here:
"Queen has been an inconsistent defender during his tenure with the Steelers, making plenty of great plays while also missing assignments and whiffing on tackles. He's tallied 249 tackles over the last two seasons, but only contributed two sacks and a trio of forced fumbles outside of that.
Pittsburgh's defense has had some brutal stretches with Queen as its defensive play-caller, including losing five consecutive games to close out 2024 and getting embarrassed by a middling Houston Texans squad in this year's playoffs.
Releasing Queen would save Pittsburgh nearly $11 million against the cap, money that it could allocate toward finding a cheaper replacement and still have cash available to spend elsewhere."
The arguments to release Queen are quite strong, and it's not like the Steelers would be removing a ton from the linebacker room. Contractually, Pittsburgh would save just under $11 million on its cap for 2026 with a release. They would have to absorb just under $6.5 million in dead money, but the cap savings would make this move a logical one.
Queen initially signed a three-year deal with the team back in 2024 worth $41 million. It's the 10th-richest in the NFL at the linebacker position, but some of the underlying numbers don't paint that kind of picture for Queen.
On paper, some of the counting stats look great—he had 129 total tackles in 2024 and 120 in 2025. He also added 11 passes defended, 14 tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits as well. Further, he's never missed a start in the NFL and is only set to play in his age-27 season.
By all accounts, the Steelers would have quite the elite linebacker, right?
Well, not exactly. According to Pro Football Reference, Queen has allowed a 106.9 passer rating when in coverage with Pittsburgh. He's also missed 26 total tackles, which is a 9.5 percent missed tackle rate. Queen has allowed six touchdowns in coverage as well.
And while PFF grades might not mean a lot to you, PFF gave him a 44.0 overall grade in 2025, which ranked 78th among 88 qualified linebackers. The bigger picture is also not ideal. In 2024, Queen's first year with the team, Pittsburgh ranked 8th in points allowed per game on defense, allowing 20.4 points per game.
In 2025, they ranked 17th in points allowed per game, surrendering 22.8 points per contest. Unfortunately for the Steelers, Queen is a perfect example of how statistics can be misleading.
He looks like quite the player on paper, but digging deeper reveals a harsh truth. What could end up benefiting the team is that he is still rather young and is capable, if nothing else. If the Steelers end up wanting to move on, there is a nonzero chance that a trade could be completed.
Any trade involving Queen wouldn't net the Steelers much of anything, but a trade would likely give the Steelers another draft pick and would also be a better financial move than an outright release.
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