Among all linebackers who are not primarily edge rushers, nobody signed a larger free-agent contract this offseason than Patrick Queen. He signed a three-year, $41 million deal to leave the Baltimore Ravens and join the division-rival Pittsburgh Steelers, netting $13.84 million in guaranteed money on the contract.
According to Queen, he could have gotten even more, but decided to take a smaller deal to go to Pittsburgh and try to win now.
"From all the 15 teams that I was talking to, it came down to like five at the end," Queen said during an appearance on Steelers_DB. "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 [million] 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 only linebackers who are not edge rushers that make $17 million per year or more are Queen's former teammate Roquan Smith ($20 million) and Tremaine Edmunds ($18 million). The only other off-ball linebacker who has a higher average annual salary than Queen's $13.7 million is Matt Milano ($14.2 million). Perhaps other teams really were offering to pay him that much more money, but the AAV at which he actually settled seems much closer to his accurate value relative to other linebackers.
As for his assertion that he signed with the Steelers to win now, well, that also seems somewhat dubious. Pittsburgh checks in at +4000 to win the Super Bowl at Caesars Sportsbook, the 17th-best odds in the NFL. (Baltimore is +900, which is third, for what it's worth.) The Steelers' 7.5-win over/under checks in 20th and they are underdogs to even make the playoffs (+160).
Then again, pretty much every NFL player asserts that they took less money in free agency to have a better opportunity to win, so this is pretty much par for the course. And it's not like the declaration affects Queen's ability to play well nor the Steelers' ability to actually win at the level he seems to think they can, so in the end, it's a pretty harmless comment that is bog-standard for a free agent in a new situation.
