Ravens’ Former 1st-Round Pro Bowler Projected for $16-$18 Million per Year

The defensive free agency class for the 2024 offseason is stacked with Pro Bowl and All-Pro talent for teams to improve through. The Baltimore Ravens have multiple defenders of this quality hitting the market at the same time, most notably linebacker Patrick Queen.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote an article where he ranked the free agent linebackers into tiers and Queen was the top-rated LB according to his tier system. His first tier was “Franchise players” but “This year, though, nobody fits the bill as a franchise-caliber player on the open market,” according to Barnwell.

Barnwell wrote, “The closest thing to a franchise player might be Queen, who had a relatively disappointing first 2½ seasons in the league.

“Queen improved to good in 2022 and was very good in 2023, producing career lows in yards per completion and yards per target,” Barnwell wrote.

Queen was able to set a career high in combined tackles during the 2023 season with 133 tackles. He was elected to the Pro Bowl for the first time and was named to the All-Pro Second Team at linebacker.

Ravens Unlikely to Bring Back Pro Bowl LB

When the Ravens brought in Smith, and then proceeded to give him a 5-year, $100 million deal, Queen’s time in Baltimore seemed numbered. Once they declined Queen’s 5th-year option in May of 2023 it seemed likely that Queen would be playing somewhere else in 2024.

“The easy landing spot for Smith is Seattle [Seahawks], where Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner are both free agents and former Ravens coordinator Mike Macdonald has taken over as coach,” Barnwell wrote. The Ravens limited cap ($16.6 million according to OverTheCap) handcuffs what they would be able to offer to Queen, and according to Barnwell, “The Ravens will pocket a comp pick and move on.”With the Ravens already having invested $100 million at the LB position, it would be difficult to see them investing potentially another $93 million.

Barnwell believes, “Queen should end up getting something close to an [Tremaine] Edmunds-sized deal somewhere this offseason.”

Edmunds received a 4-year, $72 million deal from the Chicago Bears in May of 2023. Queen may be looking to cash in for a larger deal coming off a spectacular season.