{"id":140280,"date":"2026-02-20T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:02:08","slug":"gotta-go-joe-haden-james-harrison-agree-steelers-should-release-patrick-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/140280\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Gotta Go’: Joe Haden, James Harrison Agree Steelers Should Release Patrick Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Queen was a big signing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024. Not only did they add a young linebacker coming off his first All-Pro selection, but they weakened a division rival in the Baltimore Ravens, Queen\u2019s previous team. Unfortunately, Queen hasn\u2019t lived up to expectations.<\/a> While he hasn\u2019t been terrible, he hasn\u2019t been the same level of player that he was during his final season in Baltimore. He has one year left on his contract, and former Steelers corner Joe Haden thinks he should be released.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick Queen, gotta go,\u201d Haden said Friday on his Deebo and Joe podcast.<\/a> \u201cLove him to death, but that\u2019s a lot of money there and we can use that to get another asset at, maybe, the linebacker position.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see the Steelers cut Queen. He\u2019s been solid in his two years in Pittsburgh, including making a Pro Bowl in 2024. However, he\u2019s set to count for a little over $17 million against the salary cap this season. He hasn\u2019t met that price tag, and the Steelers might be better off moving on from him.<\/p>\n

According to Over the Cap,<\/a> the Steelers will take a dead money hit of $3,863,334 if they cut Queen. However, they\u2019ll also save $13,330,000 against the cap. While the Steelers are expected to have plenty of cap space, freeing that money would give them more room to play with this offseason.<\/p>\n

Haden isn\u2019t the only ex-Steeler who thinks the team should move on from Queen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Queen, I\u2019m with you,\u201d James Harrison said on the podcast. \u201cI think he done even took Steelers out of his bio. I think you can see the writing on the wall. They may have had a conversation already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queen doesn\u2019t have the Steelers listed in his bio on Twitter or Instagram, but that\u2019s no guarantee that he\u2019s going to get cut. The team went through a lot of changes this offseason, including Mike Tomlin stepping down. That might\u2019ve left Queen more uncertain about his future.<\/p>\n

However, inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley is one of the few Tomlin assistant coaches Mike McCarthy kept on the staff. McCurley joined the Steelers last season, and he\u2019s familiar with Queen. Perhaps that will keep the veteran linebacker in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue with cutting Queen is finding his replacement since inside linebacker isn\u2019t the Steelers\u2019 biggest strength. Payton Wilson has shown flashes, but he\u2019s still got flaws. Malik Harrison is more suited as a run stuffer, Cole Holcomb\u2019s a pending free agent, and Carson Bruener is more of a special teams player at the moment.<\/p>\n

If the Steelers cut Queen, linebacker will become one of their biggest needs.<\/a> They\u2019ll either need to address the position in free agency or early in the draft. If they keep him for another season, they can fill out the rest of their roster and worry about replacing him next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Queen was a big signing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024. Not only did they add a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[59277,43751,59278,9,24,63,126,127,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-140280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-deebo-and-joe","9":"tag-james-harrison","10":"tag-joe-haden","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-patrick-queen","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-queens-headlines","18":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}