After spending the first four seasons of his NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens, linebacker Patrick Queen signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers in March, becoming the most recent player to switch sides in one of the NFL’s most famed rivalries.
While Queen’s departure from Baltimore looked to be a foregone conclusion after the team declined his fifth-year option before last season and made fellow linebacker Roquan Smith one of the NFL’s highest-paid defensive players earlier in the offseason, switching sides in the rivalry made the departure feel more personal than usual.
Then, over the weekend during an interview with Steelers Now‘s Derek Bell on his YouTube channel, Queen made it known that he took less money than other teams were offering so he could play for the Steelers, not wanting to have to go through a rebuild after spending his entire NFL career so far on a winning team.
“It was just like five teams in the mix. Some of them were offering some $17 [million per year]. After that it was like, I have a chance to either go win or I have a chance to get paid. For me, the difference was like $4 or $5 million. I’m looking at it like, I’ve never been on a losing team before, and then I also don’t want to be a part of anything being rebuilt because I’m trying to win now. I’m really just trying to win right now, get that out the way and then get paid later,” the 24-year-old linebacker noted, via NFL.com.
Queen makes a good point. He was four years old in 2003, the last time the Steelers finished the season under .500. Will that trend continue this season?
[NFL, Steelers Now]
About Robert O'Neill