Today, I wanted to get back to my studies on the Pittsburgh Steelers free agent additions this offseason, now that the busy NFL draft process has completed. So, I will continue the series by looking at data of linebacker Patrick Queen last season as a pass rusher, including 2023 Steelers as well for comparative context, which follows up my 2023 coverage article and run defense study on him. Today, I will use data from Pro Football Focus (PFF).
Let’s get right to it, starting with 2023 pass snaps and pass rush wins versus blocking to get a gauge of the position comparatively:
A picture speaks a thousand words, seeing Queen’s substantial volume in 2023 with a league high 767 pass snaps out of the 85 qualifying linebackers. Very important context for today’s article, and hopefully an element he continues with the black and gold. Queen also lands towards the top of the ranks in pass rush wins with 18, fourth-best to be exact. Impressive findings, no doubt.
The rest of the NFL, particularly the 2023 Steelers results also shed important light to Queen’s pass rushing accomplishments last season. In comparison, Pittsburgh’s Elandon Roberts had the most pass snaps of 320, less than half of Queen’s number. The four qualifying Steelers LBs had a total of 17 pass rush wins (led by Kwon Alexander with six), one shy of Queen’s impressive number.
Extremely exciting information for the 2024 outlook at LB with Queen in the fold. Add in the addition of rookie Payton Wilson, viewed by many as the top talent in the 2024 draft that was available in the third round due to injury concerns from many NFL teams. Yes, Pittsburgh dealt with the injury bug at the position in 2023, but things are looking bright moving forward, knock on wood.
Now let’s look at hurries and total pressures to see how the players fared effecting the quarterback:
Once again, we see Queen comfortably leads the linebackers we’re focused on, expectedly. His 18 hurries ranked impressively at third, while his 24 total pressures tied close behind that at fourth. Being top five in each is so great to learn and would be a huge addition to Pittsburgh’s defense in 2024.
The most positive 2023 Steeler in these terms was Roberts, with eight hurries and 14 total pressures, not bad given his notably lower pass snaps than Queen. Pittsburgh’s qualifiers had a total of 16 hurries and 26 pressures, with the former coming in below Queen’s number.
Next, I’d like to provide an interesting formula from PFF called Pass Rush Productivity (PRP), which is defined as the amount of pressure accumulated per pass rush snap, also giving weight towards sacks along with pass snaps. Here’s a view with overall PRP along with true pass set PRP (excludes play action, screens, short drop backs, and time to throw numbers under two seconds) eliminating most plays in which the pass rusher was less likely to produce:
First change in the rank leaders, with Roberts being that man. That’s encouraging considering he’s still under contract, and here’s to hoping health is paired with some of the quality he provided in 2023 this season. The particularly strong number was a 26.6 PRP, ranking second-best among qualifiers, along with a true pass set PRP that tied for 17th.
Queen was the only other focused player above the mean in each (slightly), tied for 29th in PRP, and tied for 31st in true pass sets. Yes, volume is a particularly important factor here, and part of the equation in why Roberts shot up the ranks. It’s great to see two current Steelers lead the outlook from last season and brings optimism for what’s to come in 2024.
Here are total pass rush and true pass set win percentages:
Two former Steelers lead the group we’re focused on. Yet to be mentioned today is Mykal Walker, who surprisingly led all qualifiers with a top rank in pass rush win rate. Important context is his much lower snap count, which ranked in the bottom five out of his 85 qualifying peers. To a similar extent, Alexander had top five ranks in each, but was in the bottom ten in snap opportunities. Some excellent quality, but the quantity was lacking indeed.
Insert Queen, who was also comfortably above the mean on the most pass snaps, which is much more impressive. Despite having nearly twice the snap counts as Alexander and Walker combined, Queen provided the 12th best pass rush win rate at 18 percent, and 19th in true pass sets (19.6-percent). These results emphasize needed context when viewing the stats, and why looking at one number such as Walker’s pass rush win rate can be deceiving.
To close, here are PFF grades for the position group in the same situations (overall/true pass sets):
This view is another layer of importance, seeing which players produced more in expected true pass sets as pass rushers, or vice versa. Alexander and Roberts fall into the first camp, where the former’s production largely came. Specifically, Alexander’s eighth ranked pass rush grade was aided thoroughly by a third rank in true pass sets.
Queen came in second among the focused players in PFF pass rush grade, and 34th among qualifiers, while his true pass set grade was 37th. Curiously (in my opinion), these were his lowest rankings in today’s study. Seeing his TPS below the trendline emphasizes less production coming in obvious passing situations. Optimistically, this could lead one to believe that 2024 could be even better for Queen if he can maximize those opportunities.
Here is a wrap up table and conclusion:
So, Patrick Queen was by far the most consistent pass rushing linebacker in terms of the stats in 2023. He ranked top five in the quantity measures: pass snaps (led the NFL), hurries (third), pass rush wins (fourth), and total pressures (T-fourth). Impressively, he also ranked top 20 in win percentages: pass rush win rate (12th) and 19th in TPS pass rush win rate.
His PRP and TPS PRP tied for 29th and 31st, which were above average as well. Queen’s lowest ranks were PFF pass rush grade (34th) and TPS pass rush grade (37th), which were at or above average too. This means top-40 marks out of the 85 qualifiers across every metric, with no below the mean or concerning aspects as a pass rusher in 2023.
On that less than desirable side of the pass rushing stats was Pittsburgh’s Cole Holcomb, who is still recovering from gruesome injury in 2023. We can clearly see that pass rushing wasn’t his forte, putting even more value on the Steelers landing Queen.
Adding Queen was obviously huge, and his impact as a pass rusher in 2023 was impressive, along with some nice contributions from Roberts as well provide pass rushing optimism for the upcoming season.
The findings have me feeling giddy. If Queen can carry over what he was able to with Baltimore last season for Pittsburgh in 2024, look out. I can’t wait to see how he fares in the black and gold.