The Baltimore Ravens hoped to have found their next great middle linebacker in 2020 when they drafted Patrick Queen in the first round, a surefire plug-and-play starter. While he has started every game of his career since then, and put up some stats that look good on paper, there is more to the story—and a reason that he has played under 80 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in his career.
It’s not because he’s missed a bunch of time within games due to minor injuries. It’s because they don’t yet trust him to be on the field for every snap of the game in every situation—and that’s the step he’s looking to take entering year three.