Film Room: How Patrick Queen could boost Raiders’ linebacker corps in free agency

Diving into the impending free-agent linebacker’s tape

While linebacker isn’t a pressing need for the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, adding Patrick Queen from the Baltimore Ravens would be a big boost to the position group for the Raiders. Plus, four out of the five backers who are currently under contract are about to enter a contract year to help justify opening up the checkbook for Queen in the offseason.

The former first-round pick out of LSU has been impressive in coverage over the last two seasons, especially in 2023 when he earned a top-20 coverage grade (74.8) at his position from Pro Football Focus. That was partially due to racking up 26 defensive stops in coverage during the regular season, which were tied for the sixth-most among linebackers.

Queen has also made strides as a run defender, improving his PFF grade in that department every year of his career with a respectable mark of 66.3 this past fall. He also added another 20 stops against the ground game and recorded an average depth of tackle of 3.8 yards, meaning he made several impact plays throughout the year.

So, let’s flip on the tape and see what the 24-year-old, who turns 25 in August, can do.

We’ll start with a couple of reps that show how Queen’s athleticism has helped him grow as a run defender.

The Bengals are running inside zone and Queen steps up to fulfill his responsibility with the playside A-gap. Running back Joe Mixon recognizes that and immediately looks to cut to the backside.

Meanwhile, the center and left guard are responsible for combo blocking the defensive tackle and working up to the linebacker. However, Queen has the change of direction and agility to make the center miss and then meet Mixon in the hole right at the line of scrimmage. That’s pretty impressive considering he’s making the play in what is technically Roquan Smith’s (No. 0) gap.

This is also a great tackle with low pad level and a perfect wrapup to limit the yards after contact.

This rep is similar and we’ll get a good example of how much the Ravens trusted him to cover ground laterally against the run.

Cincinnati is running an RPO and to defend against it, Baltimore walked the other linebacker — Smith — out over the slot receiver. That makes Queen’s job more difficult in the run fit as he has to account for two gaps, the backside B-gap and playside A-gap. So, he stays a little deeper this time and gets in a position where he can cover both sides of the center.

Mixon tries to press the line of scrimmage to the front side and gets Queen to bite a bit, however, Queen has the agility, change of direction and acceleration to cover ground and get to the B-gap when Mixon cuts backside. The linebacker ends up making the tackle about four yards past the line of scrimmage which the defense will take in this scenario.

Moving onto our subject’s bread and butter, coverage.

Two things he’s really good at that go hand-in-hand with each other; closing and tackling in space. In this play, he’s on the Cover 2 side of a Cover 6 call as the hook-to-curl defender. He’s reading Joe Burrow’s eyes and sees Burrow get to the check down or the running back out of the backfield running a swing route.

So, Queen triggers and starts to close the gap on the back. When he gets around the 50-yard line and within a few yards of the ball carrier, he does a good job of throttling down for a second to make sure he doesn’t over-pursue if the running back cuts back. To finish, Queen accelerates with the speed to close the gap and wraps up the ball carrier’s legs to pick up the third down stop.

What’s so impressive is he has the movement skills and speed to go from the far hashmark to the outside of the numbers to make the play. That’s rare.

This next clip is pretty similar to the last one, only the linebacker is in man coverage against Mixon this time. Again, Queen has the speed to close the gap and once he gets within a few yards of Mixon, he breaks down and doesn’t allow the running back to beat him on a cutback.

Now, I would like to see Queen bring his feet with him instead of lunging to make the tackle here, but he ends up making the play about a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage, and pretty much everything else is teach-tape material.

This next play is right before halftime and Baltimore is playing Cover 3 where Queen is the hook-to-curl defender to the short side of the field. Since there isn’t much time left on the clock, he’s staying deep in his zone and willing to give up the completion on the checkdown.

From there, he makes another nice open-field tackle against a shifty runner in Austin Ekeler, this time going the extra mile to rip the ball out from Ekeler and create a turnover. These are the types of plays Queen can make since he consistently wraps up and that’s part of the reason why he’s forced six fumbles in four seasons.

We’ll end with another rep between Ekeler and Queen.

Here, the linebacker is lined up as a corner with the running back split out wide in a stacked receiver set. Post-snap, Queen does a good job of fighting through some contact from the point receiver to stay in phase against Ekeler on the slant route.

Thinking that the defender would get picked, Justin Herbert rears back and throws the slant. However, Queen is all over the route and plays through Ekeler’s back to get a pass break up on third and six late in the game with the Ravens clinging onto a three-point lead. That’s an excellent play in a huge situation by the linebacker.