The NFL held its annual awards ceremony last night. As Baltimore Ravens fans will likely remember, the NFL Honors ceremony is where the league hands out various awards, including the NFL MVP. Unfortunately for Baltimore, they came up empty-handed with not a single player or coach taking home hardware. And for rookie linebacker Patrick Queen, he’s not happy about it.
Queen finished third in the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. His two votes finished behind Washington pass rusher Chase Young’s 42.5 votes and Carolina Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn’s 4.5 votes, according to Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams.
Queen took to social media immediately after the award was handed out, posting a somewhat cryptic emoji of a pencil and paper. If that wasn’t quite clear enough, Queen made it a lot clearer how he felt about finishing third for the award.
Top 3 my ass.. bet🤣
— 🦅 (@Patrickqueen_) February 7, 2021
Young was a disruptive force for Washington, notching 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, a fumble return for a touchdown, 10 tackles for a loss, and 24 total quarterback pressures. But Queen was no slouch either and there’s quite the case for giving him the award, or at least more votes.
Queen started all 16 games in 2020, playing 80% of the snaps on one of the NFL’s best defenses. That alone is worthy of some recognition considering Baltimore doesn’t just hand starting jobs and snaps to rookies, even if they’re outstanding. Queen finished his rookie campaign with 106 combined tackles, an interception, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, one fumble returned for a touchdown, three sacks, nine tackles for a loss, and 13 combined pressures.
Queen wasn’t the only one shocked and upset he didn’t win the award. Fellow Ravens defender Jihad Ward went to bat for Queen on social media as well.
How Tf PQ ain’t get that 😒
— HADDY (@JIHADWARD17) February 7, 2021
While Queen obviously won’t have a chance to win a Rookie of the Year award again, he seems willing to use this perceived slight as motivation. And with such an impressive rookie season, Queen stepping up his play with a chip on his shoulder is bad news for everyone else in the league.
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