Football
The NFL is full of great players. No one gets to football’s highest level without having serious talent. Some, however, stand above the rest. Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Patrick Queen offered his list of the three toughest linebackers and running backs he’s had to defend.
“I would say Trey McBride, for sure,” Queen told former Steelers defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko in a Monday night interview on his Fehoko Show podcast. “Played him my last year in Baltimore. Buddy was on one.”
McBride is one of the league’s most underrated players in part due to playing on some bad Arizona teams. In four seasons, he’s yet to be part of a team with a winning record and is on his third head coach. Only once has he faced Pittsburgh, a 2023 Cardinals upset. McBride played a key role in the win, catching eight passes for 89 yards and a touchdown in a 24-10 victory.
Queen didn’t arrive to Pittsburgh until the year after. But he faced McBride as a Baltimore Raven, also in 2023 as the Cardinals played the AFC North. He did similar damage, catching 10 passes for 95 yards and one touchdown in a narrow Cardinals loss.
Queen then selected Travis Kelce and George Kittle, two names who come as little surprise. Two of the best tight ends of the past 20 years, Kelce is a first ballot Hall of Famer with Kittle on track to end up in Canton, too. Kelce burned Queen and the Steelers on Christmas Day in 2024, hauling in eight passes for 84 yards and one touchdown in a dominant Kansas City win. Pittsburgh’s miscommunication was rampant with Queen noting Kelce’s style makes it that much tougher.
“When you’re in Cover Three, Travis Kelce would literally run an over route, but he will read it,” Queen said. “If that middle is closed, he will bend it back to a seven [corner]. When he bends it back to the seven, if the corner or the flat player over there is not playing high enough, he’s gonna keep running it. If they’re playing high and guard it, he will sit down on the hash.”
Meaning, Kelce puts defense in a lose-lose situation. He’ll adjust his route to any coverage and has enough chemistry with QB Patrick Mahomes to pull it off.
Queen also mentioned Jake Ferguson and Tucker Kraft as headaches to defend. Kraft had a career day in last year’s primetime win over the Green Bay Packers to spoil QB Aaron Rodgers first game against the Packers.
At running back, Queen rattled off several names: Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Jahmyr Gibbs, Christian McCaffrey, and Saquon Barkley. Queen’s seen plenty of Chubb and Henry in the AFC North. In his prime, Chubb was an elite back with size, power, and burst. Henry remains that today and has run all over Pittsburgh the past two seasons: 162 yards in a 2024 regular season game, 186 yards in that year’s Wild Card win over the Steelers, and 126 yards in last year’s regular season finale.
Put another way, in history, Henry’s 5.4 yard average is third-best of anyone against the Steelers (minimum 100 carries). He only trails legend Jim Brown (5.8) and his Browns teammate Ernie Green (5.6).
“I seen him get concussed in a game, go off for two plays, come back in, and then run for a 100 yards in the last quarter,” Queen said of facing Henry.
Gibbs and McCaffrey are among today’s best backs in football and true multi-purpose threats. McCaffrey is one of football’s greatest receiving backs while Gibbs has 181 catches through three seasons. When Pittsburgh took away the Lions’ running game last year, Gibbs still made an impact with 10 receptions for 66 yards and one touchdown. Barkley rushed for 2,000 yards two years ago and his “down” 2025 stats of 1,140 yards and nine total touchdowns are career years for most players.
Queen and the Steelers will avoid most of these names in the 2026 regular season, only playing Henry’s Ravens twice and Barkley’s Eagles. But the rest of the schedule includes the likes of the Atlanta Falcons and RB Bijan Robinson, the Indianapolis Colts and TE Tyler Warren, and the New Orleans Saints and RB Travis Etienne.
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