Philadelphia Eagles: Patrick Queen is a great player at the wrong position

Patrick Queen is a great player who should have a long NFL career, but he’s just not the kind of player the Philadelphia Eagles covet in the first round.

And with the 21st pick in the first round of Pro Football Focus’ live mock draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select Patrick Queen, linebacker, LSU.

Is that a realistic draft day scenario for the Birds? Honestly, no, as Howie Roseman has never drafted a linebacker in the first round of any of the drafts he’s overseen since 2010, but theoretically speaking, Queen very well may be a top-20 player in this year’s class.

It’s just too bad he plays linebacker.

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Measuring in at 6-foot-1, 221 pounds, Queen looks a lot like his LSU teammate Grant Delpit, another potential first-round pick in this year’s class. That would be all well and good, except that Delpit plays safety and only weighs 18-pounds less than Queen.

Now granted, linebackers aren’t required to be 250-pound thumpers anymore, especially as the air raid offense slowly takes up residency in the NFL, but even so, Queen would enter the NFL as one of the lightest ILBs in the league from the jump.

Fortunately, Queen doesn’t play like a smaller linebacker.

Queen is rangey, athletic, and a hitter. When tasked with lining up at weakside linebacker in the Tigers’ 3-4 defensive front alongside throwback thumper Jacob Phillips, Queen was able to cover sideline-to-sideline, and more importantly, drive into the offensive backfield as a tackles-for-loss machine.

Despite only being a one-year starter – with 15 total starts in 40 career games – Queen played like a grizzled pro for the eventual National Champions in 2019, enough that he was given a Day 1 grade as a true junior by draft evaluators.

At only 20-years-old, Queen is going to keep getting better, and may ultimately prove himself to be one of the better players in this year’s class, regardless of position.

And for his part, it’s easy to see why Mike Renner would mock Queen to the Eagles.

With only one starter returning for the 2020 season – two if you count T.J Edwards – Queen would immediately slot in as an every-down starter across from Nathan Gerry from Day 1. While he probably won’t be a ton of help in run protection right from the jump – barring, of course, he uses his quarantine time to bulk up considerably – Queen may never leave the field in Jim Schwartz‘s scheme, as he can be just as effective in base as he would be as the lone linebacker on the field in dime.

But here’s the thing: Every-down linebackers just aren’t all that valuable anymore.

I know, I know, Philly fans love their linebackers, and frankly, I do too, but how much would Queen really improve the Eagles’ record in 2020? Does he play a crucial enough role to even swing a single game in the team’s favor?

Again, Queen is a fantastic player, and if he were to be available in the second round, I would be his biggest champion, but he just won’t be. The Cincinnati Bengals have reportedly shown a ton of interest in drafting Queen with the 33rd overall pick, so barring an unforeseen, Laremy Tunsil-type situation, the tippy-top of the second round has to be his floor from a draft standpoint.

Sidebar: If the Bengals end the night with Queen and Joe Burrow on the roster, they may as well add a purple color rush jersey and go all-in on being LSU East.

If the Eagles were to select Queen in the first round, they would all but surely be doing so at the expense of more valuable players still on the board. In PFF’s own mock draft, the Eagles bypassed the likes of Xavier McKenny, Jeff Gladney, Justin Jefferson, Denzel Mims, and Curtis Weaver for a guy who could conceivably be replaced by Will Parks and a bit of defensive ingenuity.

The Baltimore Ravens had arguably the best defense in football last season, and they played L.J. Fort as their starting weakside linebacker; L.J. Fort couldn’t even see the field for the Eagles, so if that doesn’t prove how interchangeable linebackers are in 2020, I don’t know what is.

Even Renner called selecting Queen not great from a positional value standpoint, as cornerbacks and safeties are more valuable coverage players, especially in a man-heavy scheme.

This is the wide receiver draft. The Eagles don’t have a legit starting wide receiver under contract past the 2020 season. Why not use the 21st overall pick on the best wide receiver for Doug Pederson‘s scheme and allow him to grow with Carson Wentz for the next five years? If linebacker is such a pressing concern, Oregon‘s Troy Dye will probably be there in the third round, and he may be even more versatile than Queen as a coverage player due to his size advantage against tight ends.

Next. Antonio Gibson is built for Doug Pederson’s scheme. dark

Is Patrick Queen one of the 21 best players in the 2020 NFL Draft? Probably, but he’s a throwback strong safety whose best position doesn’t really exist anymore. Maybe I’m way off base here, but I believe the Philadelphia Eagles are going to use three safeties as their base package in 2020 and may only have one linebacker on the field for long stretches of the game when facing three-plus wide receiver sets. Why invest a premium pick on a linebacker to play him in the box, when you can invest a fifth-rounder on a box safety like Tanner Muse and play him like a pseudo linebacker?

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