The Cleveland Browns have a lot of decisions to make this week regarding the defensive side of the ball, and one big position group is the linebackers.
Cleveland Browns Current Linebacker Room
The Browns have a load of pending free agents at linebacker, with Sione Takitaki, Anthony Walker Jr., Matthew Adams, Jordan Kunaszyk, and Jacob Phillips all hitting the free agent market, leaving only Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, Tony Fields II, and Mohamoud Diabate left on the roster.
In recent offseasons, the Browns have let linebackers hit the free agent market. Still, they usually keep coming back, like Walker, who has returned to the team the last three years and possibly could be coming back in 2024, and Takitaki, who emerged as a very underrated player on Cleveland’s defense the previous two seasons could also be coming back for his sixth season with the Browns.
The Browns haven’t shown us they value the linebacker position much, never investing a lot of money into the spot, and usually signing their starters to one-year deals.
Cleveland does have one of the best young linebackers in the league in Owusu-Koramoah, and he is eligible for an extension this offseason; we will have to wait and see if the Browns do hand over the money to him, but could another huge linebacker be coming to the Browns this offseason.
Could Patrick Queen Be Heading To Cleveland?
In Matt Lombardo‘s Fan Buzz article, One NFL Free Agent Each Team Must Sign, he suggests the Browns should sign Baltimore Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen.
Queen was selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft and didn’t play great in his first two seasons, only having a PFF grade of 29.7 and 43.5 in 2020 and 2021, but he saw his numbers jump in year three in 2022, having 64.6 PFF run defense grade and 65.5 PFF coverage grade.
In 2023, Queen saw his highest PFF grade in his career at 73.0 and helped the Raven’s defense emerge as one of the best in the NFL.
Queen was fortunate to play alongside one of the best linebackers in the league in the last seasin in a half, Roquan Smith, which freed him up more to make plays.
The Ravens are already paying Smith a lot of money, and It will be tough to have two linebackers eating a bunch of your salary cap when the position is less valued than many others.
Could Queen Really Be Heading To Cleveland?
Spotrac has Queen’s average salary at 18.5 million dollars, which is a lot, and I don’t think the Browns will pay that much for him. Cleveland is already working with limited cap space, and signing a linebacker for around 18 million a year is something other than what Andrew Berry would be willing to do.
It would be neat to see the Browns steal a player from their division rival that would be taking two blows at once for Baltimore to lose one of your best players and then see him join a rival of yours, but in reality, it seems too good to be true.