{"id":143813,"date":"2026-02-24T15:11:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143813\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:11:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:11:53","slug":"omar-khan-hints-patrick-queen-will-remain-with-steelers-we-like-having-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143813\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Khan Hints Patrick Queen Will Remain With Steelers: ‘We Like Having Him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the 2026 season in which he\u2019s set to count more than $17 million against the salary cap, Patrick Queen\u2019s future with the Pittsburgh Steelers was seemingly up in the air.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

At least until GM Omar Khan attempted to quiet any of the noise surrounding the veteran linebacker Tuesday morning. Speaking with local reporters, including Steelers Depot\u2019s Joe Clark, at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, Khan spoke highly of Queen and indicated that he\u2019ll be around in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, PQ\u2019s [Patrick Queen] been good for us. He likes being here,\u201d Khan said. \u201cWe like having him part of the team, and part of the process is gonna be for him to get to know us, us to get to know him. But I\u2019m excited about having him around.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a disappointing end to the 2025 season in which the Steelers were blown out in the AFC Wild Card round by the Houston Texans and struggled to stop the run once again, questions have been raised about Queen\u2019s future in Pittsburgh.<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s missed 50 tackles in the last two seasons, based on charting here at Steelers Depot, and hasn\u2019t provided the splash many envisioned when the Steelers signed him in free agency ahead of the 2024 season. He has just one interception and three forced fumbles in his first two years in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

While he was an effective blitzer last year, he struggled to get the quarterback on the ground consistently and was targeted heavily in coverage<\/a> by opposing offenses. He doesn\u2019t exactly look like a $17 million per year linebacker, but the Steelers\u2019 front office likes having him at the heart of the defense as the hub of communication.<\/p>\n

So it doesn\u2019t appear that Queen is going anywhere anytime soon. Nor should he.<\/p>\n

Yes, the tackling issues are real, but he deserves a chance to play in Patrick Graham\u2019s defense, giving him the opportunity to bounce back. Remember, Queen raised issues with the defensive scheme<\/a> at times last season, but with Graham stepping into the fold as the new defensive coordinator, Pittsburgh has a chance to reset on that side of the football from a schematic aspect.<\/p>\n

Queen can be a big part of that. He was an All-Pro player in Baltimore for a reason. He can get back to that, especially as a guy who plays nearly 100% of the snaps.<\/p>\n

The Steelers are in good cap shape already and don\u2019t need to be cutting guys to clear more space just to do it.<\/p>\n

Queen appears safe, for now, reading into Khan\u2019s comments. But a lot could change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the 2026 season in which he\u2019s set to count more than $17 million against the salary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,60334,126,127,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-143813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-omar-khan","12":"tag-patrick-queen","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143813","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=143813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}