Ravens agree to terms with first round pick Patrick Queen
On Wednesday the Baltimore Ravens announced that they have officially agreed to terms with their first-round draft pick Patrick Queen. The former LSU standout inside linebacker was selected with the 28th overall pick in this past April’s draft and is expected to be a plug and play starter from day one and have an immediate impact on a defense that finished as the third-best unit in the league last season and added even more firepower to it this offseason.
Now that he is under contract Queen can focus solely on getting ready to play a significant role on a championship-contending team with not a whole lot of time and now no preseason games prior to the regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While he has been praised by his coaches for his mental acumen and propensity for not repeating the same mistakes dating back to his college days, getting up to speed and getting ready for his rookie season after an offseason of nothing but virtual meetings and workouts will be quite the challenge to overcome.
The Ravens’ first-rounder has been garnering a lot of attention in the media as one of the rookies in the best situation to succeed in year one with all of the playmakers in front of him and behind him in Baltimore. He’s considered an early front runner to win the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and has even been compared to Hall of Famer and Ravens franchise legend and icon Ray Lewis by media members and his new quarterback, teammate and reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson.
Queen has the right mindset all the physical tools to become a day one difference maker and the next great Ravens inside linebacker. His playing style closely resembles Lewis’ in the sense that coming out of college, they both were viewed as a speedy sideline to sideline playmakers with great instincts and were a bit undersized.
The doubts about Lewis’ size and ability to play with the big boys at the pro level didn’t stop him from playing nearly two decades in the league and leading the Ravens to two Superbowl titles and in today’s NFL Queens size and ability in coverage gives him an advantage since today’s game is being played more and more in space and less and less at or near the line of scrimmage.
General Manager Eric DeCosta and company kind of broke their usual mold with the selection of Queen to come in and fill the void left by four-time Pro Bowler CJ Mosley who departed via free agency last season. He only had one year of starting experience in college and it wasn’t even a full season as the starter. Despite his lack of experience, Queen was able to show enough on film during Tigers ride to the National Championship to entice Baltimore into not passing up on him even though he didn’t have the years of production that they typically look for at a position that is considered the quarterback of the defense.
Once elevated into the starting lineup, Queen was LSU’s most disruptive and valuable defender totaling a team-leading 85 tackles, including 12 for loss, registering three sacks and interception, and was named Defensive MVP of the national title game. If he can a similar seamless transition in his first year in the league for the Ravens, he’ll quickly establish himself as one of the best young defenders in the game.
