For Ravens LB Patrick Queen, ‘finally’ making the Pro Bowl means a new level of football satisfaction
Patrick Queen spoke to his mother, Mary Sue, about a week and a half before the NFL announced its Pro Bowl teams for this season.
If he did not make it this time, the Ravens linebacker told his most loyal supporter, he would not know how to make sense of it, because, “I did everything I needed to.”
When that recognition came Wednesday — the culmination of a four-year rise from lambasted first-round draft pick to stalwart in one of the NFL’s finest defenses — Queen was overcome. He said he had never felt more accomplished as a football player, even when he helped LSU win a national championship at the end of his final college season.
“Finally,” he said as Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta pulled him in for a long embrace after informing him he’d made it. He and his running mate, Roquan Smith, claimed the two inside linebacker spots on the AFC’s roster. Three other teammates — center Tyler Linderbaum, safety Kyle Hamilton and defensive tackle Justin Madubuike — joined him as first-time honorees.
“So much work, so much dedication, so many sacrifices go into it,” Queen reflected Thursday. “For people around the league to respect my game and give a nod to me, it’s incredible.”
“I remember last year, when he found out he didn’t make it, he took it hard,” said Queen’s friend and locker room neighbor, safety Geno Stone. “I just feel like he deserved that moment. He had worked for it all his life. We talk all the time, especially having come in together, about how you always dream of stuff like that.”
Tears welled in Queen’s eyes as he processed how far he’d come over four seasons.
He had just turned 21 when he debuted, not ready for the “next Ray Lewis” mantle fans and writers were so eager to place on him. When his erratic play led to backlash from that same chorus, he took it personally and placed more pressure on himself.
“My first two years were definitely rough, for me and the fan base,” he said. “But I knew what type of person I am. I don’t run from a fight. There was so much work I had to put in, understanding that I came into the league raw, young, without much experience under my belt. I didn’t expect it to be that hard.”
Teammates recognized his growing pains.
“He took a lot of criticism along the way, and he’s a guy who shows his emotions a a lot, sometimes on social media,” Stone said. “It takes time in the league to find yourself.”
The Queen of today bears little resemblance to that self-flagellating rookie. He was one of the first Ravens to proclaim how special this year’s team could become, and he’s among the first to spit verbal fire at opponents.
“We play a brand of football that people don’t want to play,” he said after the Ravens thumped the San Francisco 49ers on Christmas night. “Everybody wants to be out here [being] cute, playing basketball on grass and stuff, and we [are not] with all that. You can do all that stuff; we’re just going to hit you in the mouth every play, honestly.”
He has backed those fierce words with fierce play, reaching a career-high 125 tackles and earning the best Pro Football Focus grade of his four-year tenure with the Ravens despite playing through a shoulder injury that flared up again in the Ravens’ 56-19 blowout of the Miami Dolphins last Sunday.
In typically gritty fashion, Queen said he does not plan to rest his shoulder Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, despite the fact the Ravens have nothing to gain by winning. He figures it will be his kind of game, and he loathes the idea of losing to a rival twice in the same season.
“I could use the rest, but at the same time, I do want to play; it’s Pittsburgh,” he said. “Those guys come out fierce, try to do their thing. [They] try to come out, punch you in the mouth and stuff, so that’s my type of game. It isn’t going to be no treat or anything. They’re just coming out, they’re lined up, and they say, ‘Can you stop us?’ So that’s something that you respect [about] a team, and that’s why I am kind of excited to play.”
Queen feels he can only “get overwhelmed by stuff” if he looks past the next opponent to the Ravens’ playoff opener on the third weekend of January. That same live-in-the-moment ethic applies when the topic turns to where Queen might play next season.
The Ravens did not pick up his fifth-year option, meaning he’s headed for free agency. Though the decision stung initially, Queen quickly shifted to viewing it as a “blessing in disguise.” He wants to stay in Baltimore but has pumped up his market value this season, meaning the Ravens, with a raft of free agents hitting the market, might not be able to afford him, especially with Smith slated to make $91 million over the next four years.
That speculation doesn’t interest him much at the moment.
“It comes up every now and then, but at the end of the day, I’m happy where I’m at right now,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of games left to play, with that one goal that we all want. If we achieve that, I think everything else will take care of itself.”