The Baltimore Ravens suffered through a six-game losing streak to end their 2021 season, finishing the year with an 8-9 record. The team went through a countless amount of injuries, and that forced them to rely on both young players and veterans to pick up the slack left by their injured stars.
Two of those players were the inside linebacker duo of Patrick Queen and Josh Bynes. Queen struggled mightily over the first half of season, but had a tremendous second half of the year with Bynes playing next to him. When Bynes was asked to explain what he saw out of Queen from a maturation perspective over the course of the year, the veteran explained just how impressed he was with the second-year linebacker.
“He’s matured so well, just as far as knowing how to make the plays that come to him and dial in when he needs to dial in. Obviously, you can see that he still has the huge, big-play ability. Instead of trying to make them all happen at once, it’s [taking] the ones that actually come to him. And he’s still growing; he’s only, damn, 22. So, he has a whole world ahead of him, especially in this league. But to see the transformation from how he was the first part of the season to where he is now is lightyears ahead. The upside is tremendous, and I can’t wait to see him continue to bloom and blossom in this league.”
Bynes was signed to the Baltimore practice squad in early September, and earned a full-time roster spot just a few weeks later. He was a steadying presence in the middle of the Ravens’ defense and seemed to help Queen as a running mate.
Bynes is scheduled to hit free agency in 2022, and many believe that it would be wise to re-sign a player that made such a positive impact. Queen now has another offseason to hone his craft and improve his game, and he can take the momentum that he accumulated in the second half of 2021 and use it to his advantage.
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