Opinion: The Steelers’ Missed‑Tackle Crisis Begins With a Fundamental Misuse of Patrick Queen

The Steelers’ Week 4 loss to the Browns was frustrating for a lot of reasons, but one issue stood out above everything else: missed tackles.

It’s a problem that has plagued this team for years, and Thursday night was a masterclass in how quickly it can sink them. According to Next Gen Stats, Pittsburgh surrendered

108 yards after missed tackles, a staggering number that reflects not just individual faivlures, but a systemic defensive flaw. It’s easy to pass the burden of the blame to linebacker Patrick Queen - notably after his embarrassing moment on Jaleel McLaughlin’s touchdown run, but the truth is far bigger than one player.

Queen’s struggles highlight a deeper misalignment between role and skill set. The fact is that Queen is a true WILL linebacker, built to chase sideline‑to‑sideline, scrape over the top, and clean up plays with speed and range. He is not the MIKE type who consistently takes on climbing guards, absorbs contact from offensive linemen, and wins tackles in tight spaces. When the Steelers force him into that role, they expose him — and the defense — to exactly the kind of breakdowns Cleveland exploited.

The Browns understood this and attacked it relentlessly. They cracked Queen with receivers, forced him into downhill fits, and isolated him on perimeter runs where leverage becomes everything. But the bigger issue is that Pittsburgh didn’t adjust. Instead of shifting more downhill responsibility to Payton Wilson or rotating safeties down to support the edges, they kept asking Queen to play a style that doesn’t match his strengths. The result was predictable: missed tackles, extended drives, and a defense that looked out of phase all night.

What comes next is less about easy fixes and more about uncomfortable truths.

Queen isn’t built for MIKE or SAM responsibilities, and Payton Wilson — for all his promise — is having his own issues holding up against downhill run action. The Steelers can shuffle assignments, tweak fits, or adjust personnel groupings, but the underlying problem remains: their linebackers are being asked to play roles that don’t match their profiles. Until that changes, the tackling inconsistencies we saw against Cleveland aren’t an outlier — they’re a preview of what this defense may continue to look like.