The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off one of their best defensive performances of the 2025 season. Against the AFC-leading Indianapolis Colts in Week 9, Mike Tomlin's defense played with their hair on fire—sacking quarterback Daniel Jones five times and recording six total defensive takeaways.
Even with the Colts stringing together roughly half of their yardage in garbage time late in the game, Jones finished the game with just 6.8 yards per pass attempt and a 13.0 QBR. Meanwhile, sensational running back Jonathan Taylor earned just 45 yards on 14 carries (3.2 yards per carry) as Indy rushed for just 2.9 yards per carry as a team.
While the collective defensive performance was everything Steelers fans wanted to see, there's still a glaring weakness in the middle of the defense. Unfortunately, that's not going away any time soon.
Patrick Queen has been a liability on the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense
We've talked about Darius Slay's struggles often this season. Now it's time to address the biggest elephant in the room: Patrick Queen. Pittsburgh's high-budget free agent during the 2024 offseason has had some spectacular moments in his first year-and-a-half with the Steelers. However, his shortcomings can no longer be masked by a talented defense.
Queen has been exposed often this season. Eight games into his sixth NFL season, Queen has been credited with a whopping 15 missed tackles—an egregious missed tackle rate of 21.7 percent.
To make matters worse, the veteran linebacker has allowed 38 receptions on 51 targets this season for 447 yards and two touchdowns, per Pro Football Focus. This has resulted in a 113.8 passer rating allowed. Opposing quarterbacks have found a weak spot in the middle of the defense, and they've exploited it often.
After a somewhat respectable start to the season, Queen's performance has fallen off a cliff. Roughly halfway through the year, Queen has earned just a 42.1 PFF grade—good for 75th among 82 qualifying linebackers this season.
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Sadly, the film backs up these pitiful grades from PFF. When you put on the all-22 tape, you can witness Queen overpursuing in the running game, failing to square up and tackle, and failing to stay disciplined in coverage.
Though Queen is still young (26), if he hasn't turned things around halfway through his sixth season, he might never get it. His tape has a very similar feel to that of former 2019 first-round pick Devin White—a high-profile, run-and-chase linebacker who's never really developed the rest of his game.
Here's the worst part: there's nothing the Steelers can do about Queen hitting rock bottom. Queen is the defensive communicator with the 'green dot' helmet. Because of the investment the team made in him last offseason and the lack of quality depth at the position, he's immune to receiving a demotion from the Steelers.
At this point, fans simply have to hope the struggling linebacker can start showing any signs of improvement. Patrick Queen has been one of the biggest liabilities on Pittsburgh's defense, and there's nothing the team can do about it.