The Baltimore Ravens saw their 2021 season come to a close in Week 18 after a 16-13 overtime defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It wasn’t what many in Baltimore were expecting before the year began, as the team finished with an 8-9 record after starting the season 8-3.
One of the players who showed flashes for the team in 2021 was inside linebacker Patrick Queen. The second-year player struggled over the first half of the year, but bounced back in a big way. When asked about the strides that he made this year as he heads into the offseason, Queen talked about how much he critiques his own game, and gave a glimpse of what he was dealing with during his struggles on the field
“I’m always critiquing my game. Every play, even if I make a big play, I’m critiquing it even more. Like, the TFL [tackles for loss] that I had, like, what could I have done more? Could I get the ball out? Could I [have] done something else to make a bigger play, make a bigger impact to help our team win? So, I’m always critiquing myself. It was tough [in] the beginning of the season, [with the] ups and downs that I went through, with the position stuff and just trying to be a better player. I just battled back and never … I pouted for a few days – I’m not going to lie – I did, but I just got back into it, got back into the grind mode and just went to work and tried to be a better player for my team, for my coaches, for my family, for everybody that knows me.”
Queen struggled with tackling and other things at the start of the 2021 season, but improved tremendously as the season progressed in the second half. He finished the year as Baltimore’s leading tackler with 98, and also had two sacks and one forced fumble. He looked much more confident on the field over the second half of the year, and can take away plenty of positives as he works on his game in the offseason.