This is the sixth in a series on the Steelers' roster as the team prepares to report to training camp at Saint Vincent College July 23. Today: Inside linebacker
Inside Linebackers: Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, Cole Holcomb, Malik Harrison, Mark Robinson, Carson Bruener, Devin Harper
The Steelers have gone from having a rotating door at inside linebacker for several seasons following the untimely injury of Ryan Shazier to making it perhaps the deepest position group on the team.
There's a good mix of veteran and young talent that took what had been a position of weakness and turned it into a position of strength – perhaps for a number of years to come.
Veteran Patrick Queen, a former All-Pro with the Ravens, was signed last offseason to help solidify the position and did a solid job of that in 2024. Queen led the Steelers with 129 tackles, including six for a loss, a sack, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and seven pass defenses.
And by his own admission, he can even be better than that.
"I'm always going to be searching and looking for more that I can do, trying to be the best player I can be for my team and for myself," Queen told reporters at the Steelers' minicamp. "I didn't do that last year. That's what really aggravated me this whole offseason."
Queen also was very sick for the team's 28-14 playoff loss at Baltimore, taking four IV bags of fluid before the game to get onto the field.
Year two in the Steelers' system should be much better.
The same could be said for second-year pro Payton Wilson, who is expected to see the majority of the snaps next to Queen after playing primarily in the nickel defense last season.
A rangy player like Queen, Wilson's addition to the starting lineup will give the Steelers two of the fastest inside linebacker pairings in the NFL.
Despite playing just 45 percent of the defensive snaps in 2024, Wilson finished fourth on the team with 79 tackles, two quarterback hits, an interception, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.
One of the biggest stories for the Steelers in this year's training camp will be the return of Cole Holcomb. Signed as a free agent in 2023, Holcomb was playing well when he suffered a serious leg injury that caused him to miss the final nine games of that season and all of 2024.
But he began practicing late last season and is now fully recovered from the knee issue, giving the Steelers a quality veteran backup.
If the return of Holcomb wasn't enough, the Steelers also signed veteran Malik Harrison in free agency. The former Ravens' starter has appeared in 76 career games and also is a solid special teams ace.
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A downhill thumper, he'll bring a veteran presence to the team's special teams units, as well as being capable of playing quality defensive snaps.
Mark Robinson, a seventh-round draft pick in 2022, enters his fourth NFL season having played more than 300 special teams snaps in each of the past two seasons. But because of the team's improved linebacker depth, he saw just eight defensive snaps in 2024.
Robinson could be pushed hard this year by seventh-round draft Carson Bruener. The son of longtime Steelers tight end and current scout Mark Bruener, Carson Bruener was a special teams demon at the University of Washington before emerging as a defensive star for the Huskies, leading the team with 104 tackles last season.
Veteran Devin Harper, a 2022 sixth-round pick of the Cowboys, also was signed to provide veteran competition at the position. Harper has appeared in 12 career games exclusively on special teams.
